Junk Fees, Joe? Let's Start with the Airlines

 

by Pa Rock

Plucked Passenger

 "Junk Fees" is a term referring to charges that some companies add to the purchase price of their product, usually late in the purchase process at a time when customers are less likely to back out due to sleaze ball practices by the seller.  The Biden administration has recently seemed to take an interest in going after this particularly shoddy way of relieving consumers of even more of their hard-earned cash, and they see it as one more element of a populist campaign that should be popular with voters without shutting down American enterprise..

Two weeks ago the Biden administration was able to announce that Live Nation and Ticketmaster were instituting new practices that would enable consumers to see the actual (complete) price of tickets up front at the beginning of the ticket-purchasing process, thus ending the old bait-and-switch routine that had been involved in concert ticket sales for literally generations.

And the administration has vowed that other companies in other fields will be following suit.  The whole concept of eliminating junk fees has, in fact, become a Biden campaign focus  for 2024.

Wonderful, wonderful!  Although my purchasing of concert tickets has dropped off sharply over the past few years, this member of the buying public still appreciates any serious efforts to rein-in prices and to protect consumers from unscrupulous sellers.

Now do the airline industry!

Why, oh why, must an air traveler in the United States of America have to pay extra to bring a modest amount of luggage.  I recently made a trip on a major airline and had to pay $30 to bring along one suitcase.  I chose to pack all of my stuff in one standard-sized suitcase and then check that bag so that it would travel in the cargo hold of the plane and not pose and obstacle or risk for myself and other passengers.  I did not choose to use a smaller suitcase that I could cram into an overhead compartment and take up space that could be used for smaller, personal items brought by other passengers.  

I also chose not to pay another special fee that would have allowed me to choose my seat, and instead spent two-and-a-half hours curled up in a ball in a middle seat between two large people.  (Okay, I am large, too - but that's not the point.)   I bought my ticket early and should have had a choice of seating then based on my early purchase - first in line - and not on a greedy sliding-scale of extra amenities at an extra cost.

Why can't airlines just determine a price for flying from Point A to Point B, a price where they could make a profit, and then stop nickel-and-diming the public with junk fees?

Traveling with one piece of luggage and at least having a chance at getting an aisle seat are not things that merit the picking of pockets.  They should be part of the basic, advertised ticket price.

Fix it, Joe - and Secretary Pete.   And when you are done with that, expand Amtrak so that fewer people get forced into the flying cattle cars that currently masquerade as an  "airline industry."