2009-04-19

When ya gotta go, ya gotta pay

Another old post I for some reason never got around to publishing. I was talking to my mother about her experience flying out here (she was able to fly out for the weekend and give us a break from spending time at the hospital, where my son still is with an unknown diagnosis):

The idea that this is even a question to be considered is reason enough to swear off flying.

Flying out here, my mother did of course have to pay extra for something extra she brought us that she had to check. Compared to a flight down to Mexico she had not two weeks earlier, when they didn't charge for extra weight per person (one of her party did have an overweight bag, but they averaged the weight of all bags for all fliers in their party, and they didn't have to pay), meals on the plane, or even alcoholic beverages for the passengers.

It reminded me of a comment I read on someone's blog a while ago. They wondered when airlines started to charge extra for just about everything and hid behind rising fuel costs as the reason, that, if fuel costs were to go back down, would these extra costs go away? Well, I know I'm back to paying under $2 per gallon of gas, and airlines are still charging for whatever they can get away with.

I know I've said it before, but it's a large part of the reason why, even when gas prices were at their highest, my family and I drove out to California instead of flying. If it's just me for a weekend trip, I might consider it. For my family, no way.

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