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

(www.travelandtourworld.com)
663 points duxup | 4 comments | 24 Sep 25 12:30 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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doodaddy ◴[24 Sep 25 13:12 UTC] No.45359838[source]▶
> Instead of the clear, itemized pricing system that passengers currently rely on, airlines could hide fees until later in the booking process…

They call what we have now “clear”? Where when looking at a page of flights I don’t know how much the multitude of economy/economy+/economy++/premium economy/business/business++ seats will cost until I click on each flight? Where every carrier offers slightly different variations of these seats such that I can’t cross-shop on Google Flights?

Is that the clear and transparent system the airlines are complaining about?

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lotsofpulp ◴[24 Sep 25 13:46 UTC] No.45360309[source]▶
If each flight leg is a different price, how can the website show you the total until you select both (or all) legs?
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1. nerdponx ◴[24 Sep 25 14:36 UTC] No.45361057[source]▶
That doesn't mean it's not opaque and complicated.
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2. lotsofpulp ◴[24 Sep 25 14:56 UTC] No.45361299[source]▶
The context is making pricing more opaque than it needs to be in order to earn more money.

I don’t understand how it could be made simpler, unless you want every flight to cost the same, which is stupid. Hence the complaint does not make sense.

3. terminalshort ◴[24 Sep 25 16:18 UTC] No.45362500[source]▶
"We can't tell you the exact price because you haven't told us what you want to buy yet" isn't opaque or complicated.
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4. nerdponx ◴[25 Sep 25 00:08 UTC] No.45367571[source]▶
Kind of? The way flights are sold and priced is opaque and complicated IMO. That doesn't make it bad necessarily: maybe there's no good alternative, I don't know. But it really is opaque and it really is complicated. I think my opinion is at least somewhat educated, having done some crude flight price modeling for work in the past.