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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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 Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 11:51 am Post subject: Airlines to charge based on weight? |
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une 3 (Bloomberg) -- Imagine two scales at the airline ticket counter, one for your bags and one for you. The price of a ticket depends upon the weight of both.
That may not be so far-fetched.
``You listen to the airline CEOs, and nothing is beyond their imagination,'' said David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group. ``They have already begun to think exotically. Nothing is not under the microscope.'' He declined to discuss what any individual airline might be contemplating, including charging passengers based on weight.
With fuel costs almost tripling since 2000, now accounting for as much as 40 percent of operating expenses at some carriers, according to the ATA, airlines are cutting costs and raising revenue in ways that once were unthinkable. U.S. Airways Group Inc. has eliminated snacks. Delta Air Lines Inc. is charging $25 for telephone reservations. AMR Corp.'s American Airlines last month became the first U.S. company to charge $15 for one checked bag.
Logical Step
After U.S. airlines reported combined first-quarter losses of $1.7 billion and crude oil jumped to a record $133.17 a barrel on May 21, almost double from a year earlier, fares based on a passenger's weight may be a logical step, said Robert Mann, head of R.W. Mann & Co., an aviation consultant based in Port Washington, New York.
``If you look at the air-freight business, that's the way they've always done it,'' he said. ``We're getting treated like air freight when we travel by airlines, anyway.'' |
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid=aNsp.l2CJ1jk
Makes sense. Tough times in commodity markets are focing very uncomfortable decisions. |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 11:57 am Post subject: |
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| These kinds of fees, esp. on checked bags, are unwelcome. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 12:05 pm Post subject: |
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Agreed.
But the cost of running a plane depends on the weight of the plane. This is why we can't bring 200kgs of bags. Why should I pay the same fee as somebody 2, 3 or 4 times my weight? They cost more to fly, and therefore it should cost more for them to fly. |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 2:42 pm Post subject: |
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| mises wrote: |
Agreed.
But the cost of running a plane depends on the weight of the plane. This is why we can't bring 200kgs of bags. Why should I pay the same fee as somebody 2, 3 or 4 times my weight? They cost more to fly, and therefore it should cost more for them to fly. |
And the barber doesn't cut hair based on length but charges based on a set fee. Taxi drivers don't charge based on weight either. Most people don't weight 3 or 4 times you. And many airline do indeed charge a 4x guy more, for an extra seat.
Fuel is not the only cost built into the ticket. You have many sunk costs like salaries, maintenance, etc.
So putting it all together, yes, they could. But it now takes extra time and equipment to do this. It take training. It takes new software. It pisses off customers. Is this form of price discrimination worth it in the long run? |
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Bigfeet
Joined: 29 May 2008
Location: Grrrrr.....
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| Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 3:12 pm Post subject: |
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| In a way this make things more fair but it's not going to fly with the public, they don't like being treated like cattle. It's probably better if they charge based on averages. For instance, make the per ticket price higher per person if the plane is loading up in America. |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 3:36 pm Post subject: |
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| mindmetoo wrote: |
| Is this form of price discrimination worth it in the long run? |
I understand that this represents a very complex problem, that private airline corporations everywhere struggle with solvency. So I would answer that they may be between a rock and a hard place and not have much of a choice in the matter. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 5:28 pm Post subject: |
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| mindmetoo wrote: |
| It pisses off customers. Is this form of price discrimination worth it in the long run? |
It pisses off customers? When has such a consideration ever stopped the airlines? |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 6:42 pm Post subject: |
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| I'm semi-surprised you free market types aren't jumping for joy since this may be the end of skinny people sharing the burden of flying fat people around. Down with socialism for the fat! |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 7:07 pm Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| I'm semi-surprised you free market types... |
I doubt there are more than three Smithian, free-market types here. If you ask me, we ought to nationalize airlines and all public transportation once-and-for-all. Airline corporations have had their chance. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 7:08 pm Post subject: |
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| Gopher wrote: |
| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| I'm semi-surprised you free market types... |
I doubt there are more than three Smithian, free-market types here. If you ask me, we ought to nationalize airlines and all public transportation. |
Airlines practically are nationalized. They've been bailed out so many times . . . |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 7:11 pm Post subject: |
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| I know. But I wish we would simply go all the way. I do not believe it can function as a solvent, let alone profitable, venture. And given its place as a vital part in public transportation, perhaps we should never have expected it to in the first place. |
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sojourner1
Joined: 17 Apr 2007
Location: Where meggi swim and 2 wheeled tractors go sput put chug alugg pug pug
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| Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 7:27 pm Post subject: |
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I wish we could go the old fashioned way of sailing the high seas like they once did and not be so limited on baggage size and weight, because this is not a short business trip we're going on. I wish we could take the ship and take our time with no ill effects of jet lag in coming to Korea, but still have the affordable option to fly when you want to jaunt down to Thailand on vacation. Of course, there may be expensive cruises available.
If the cost of fuel ever becomes prohibitively expensive to fly on, then the old fashioned option might become commonly available. No worries about weight and you could pack more in big trunks, chests, crates, boxes, and luggage; even vehicles to carry it all on land upon arrival.
Don't expect quick results. 
Last edited by sojourner1 on Tue Jun 03, 2008 7:33 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Bigfeet
Joined: 29 May 2008
Location: Grrrrr.....
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| Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 7:30 pm Post subject: |
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| The old hub-and-spoke airlines are having problems, but lean airlines like Southwest are doing well. Ford, GM, and Chrysler aren't doing well but that doesn't mean the whole car industry is in trouble. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 7:38 pm Post subject: |
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| sojourner1 wrote: |
I wish we could go the old fashioned way of sailing the high seas like they once did and not be so limited on baggage size and weight, because this is not a short business trip we're going on. I wish we could take the ship and take our time with no ill effects of jet lag in coming to Korea, but still have the affordable option to fly when you want to jaunt down to Thailand on vacation. Of course, there may be expensive cruises available.
If the cost of fuel ever becomes prohibitively expensive to fly on, then the old fashioned option might become commonly available. No worries about weight and you could pack more in big trunks, chests, crates, boxes, and luggage; even vehicles to carry it all on land upon arrival.
Don't expect quick results. |
The old-fashioned option is obscenely expensive. And, of course it is, because they have to house you and feed you for a longer period of time. |
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wannago
Joined: 16 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 8:24 pm Post subject: |
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| mises wrote: |
Agreed.
But the cost of running a plane depends on the weight of the plane. This is why we can't bring 200kgs of bags. Why should I pay the same fee as somebody 2, 3 or 4 times my weight? They cost more to fly, and therefore it should cost more for them to fly. |
Then fat people should get a seat proportionate to what they pay for the ticket. Skinny people should get, well, skinny seats. Fat people should get wide seats. Pack the skinny people real tight in the back of the plane and let the fat people have a sort of reduced business class. Skinny Economy and Fat Economy seating.
I can see it now: Anorexic Airlines..."You're skinny so you fly cheap" |
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