Would the airline industry implode if they raised prices to cover those alleged expenses so that all you paid for was a ticket? Snyder thinks so. “Having low fares is incredibly important for filling all those seats.” What a crock of shit! Yes, low fares are nice, but are they realistic?
There was a time when the price you were quoted for a plane ticket was the price you paid to travel by air in relative comfort. Lots of people couldn’t afford to fly and no one’s roof caved in as a result. There were, and are, other modes of transportation. Those who could afford to fly were not forced to pry information about fees from employees who were instructed to disclose as little as possible, nor was anyone put on the spot by some arbitrary last minute change.
The Golden Age of flying was proof that good customer service and honest business dealings could make a bumpy ride worth the cost for those who could afford it and something to aspire to for those who couldn’t. It wasn’t done by a bunch of people trying to put a shine on shit (which Mythbusters proved could be done, but it would take the kind of work the airlines have made clear they are not willing to do).
There’s little the paying passenger can do about poor airline service but deal with it or not use air travel. Airlines have the right to run their businesses any way they choose, even if they choose to run it into the ground.
What’s disturbing is the number of times they’ve been allowed to do this with the financial blessing of other people’s money and the way they have come to treat those people. That’s a stark enough reality without the likes of Snyder chiming in with something akin to Zelda Rubinstein’s performance in Poltergeist: “All are welcome into the light.”
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