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US airlines are pushing to remove protections for passengers and add more fees

(www.travelandtourworld.com)
663 points duxup | 5 comments | 24 Sep 25 12:30 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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eadmund ◴[24 Sep 25 13:14 UTC] No.45359858[source]▶
> [Elimination of] Automatic Refunds for Cancellations

Does this mean when the passenger cancels or when the airline cancels? If it’s when the passenger chooses to cancel, this seems fine and fair: he paid for a flight; he chose not to take it. If it’s the latter, then it seems very unfair.

> Transparency of Fees

This seems patently unfair. Folks should know what they’re going to be paying ahead of time.

> Family Seating Guarantees

On the one hand, this seems fair. If you want to sit together, pay for that privilege. It doesn’t make sense to tax every other passenger for it. OTOH, families are a net benefit to society, so maybe it’s right for everyone else to pitch in a bit. Also, nothing is worse than the folks who didn’t pay up ahead of time who bug one, ‘may we switch seats so we can sit together?’ So perhaps free family seating makes life easier for everyone.

> [Elimination of] Accessibility Protections for Disabled Passengers

I wonder what that actually means. It could be fair (for example, folks too large for one seat purchasing two) or unfair.

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cdrini ◴[24 Sep 25 13:22 UTC] No.45359959[source]▶
> [Elimination of] Automatic Refunds for Cancellations

Airline cancellations. Seeing as they're talking about making a change, I assume it's airline cancellations, since no airline will currently refund you for a passenger cancellation.

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tarentel ◴[24 Sep 25 13:25 UTC] No.45360000[source]▶
Some will, you just have to pay an extra fee when you buy the ticket. It is ridiculous.
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1. cdrini ◴[24 Sep 25 13:33 UTC] No.45360114[source]▶
I think charging a fee for passenger cancellation insurance is reasonable; the airline takes on a decent amount of risk if a consumer can cancel at any time.
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2. BolexNOLA ◴[24 Sep 25 13:39 UTC] No.45360198[source]▶
I don’t think anybody’s said so far that it has to be at any time. Up to X number of days out, like most hotels, I think is perfectly reasonable.
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3. cdrini ◴[24 Sep 25 13:48 UTC] No.45360336[source]▶
That would be reasonable, but I think I could take it or leave it. Planes fill up more than hotels would be my guess, so they'd need a buffer window of like a month? At which point the difference between having and not having cancellation protection seems negligible to me.
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4. BolexNOLA ◴[24 Sep 25 13:54 UTC] No.45360435{3}[source]▶
I think we’re making a lot of assumptions here. For all we know one to two weeks could make a lot of sense.

I understand airlines are very feast or famine and often operate on very thin margins, but at this point I’m willing to pay a little more for the experience to not be so categorically and consistently miserable

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5. cdrini ◴[24 Sep 25 14:12 UTC] No.45360691{4}[source]▶
I think for me my main gripe with air travel is how hard it is to predict the price and how high the prices are. It takes me like a day of research to book a flight due to how careful I have to be to confirm what luggage I'm allowed/etc. And it's incredibly easy for me to get burned because aggregator sites like Google flights can't tell you eg how much a carry-on would cost, so I have to try to determine if the cheaper flight is _actually_ cheaper, etc etc. And I'm tired of having family have to pay crazy hundred dollar + fees for an extra carry on because the eco light ticket (although the ticket just says eco on it) doesn't actually include a personal item, that's only part of the eco ticket, and since you're at the counter that's going to be $100 fee for you to carry a purse onto the plane. -_- Shout out Condor.

Otherwise I find everything ok. The flights are fine -- packed but it is what it is there's high demand. I could do with/without the food if it reduced the price, I can pack my own. But otherwise I find them fine.

What makes air travel miserable for you?