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Business Title: United Airlines President Says If You're Uncomfortable In Coach, It's Your Own Fault The airline appears to have no sympathy with your discomfort.They feel your suffering. They understand your pain as if it were their own. They watch you struggle and they wish they could do something about it. I'm talking about airline executives. And I'm lying. I've been moved, you see, by the words of United Airlines president Scott Kirby. Skift managed to get wind of this thoughts from a recent town hall meeting with employees. I fear you may find some of his sentiments a bit of a drag. Kirby mused this on the subject of coach seats having little to no legroom -- sometimes, the closest measure of this is called seat pitch. "Seat pitch has come down because that's what customers voted with their wallets that they wanted," said Kirby. "I know everyone would tell you, 'I would like more seat pitch.' But the history in the airline industry is every time airlines put more seat pitch on, customers choose the lowest price." You see, oh silly passenger. Your discomfort is caused by your parsimoniousness. If you gave the airlines more money, they'd be only too delighted to offer you more space. Instead, you're being cruel to the airline by not wanting to pay more, so the airline has no option but to make you feel bad. Indeed, you can't help thinking that the airline is happy to make you feel bad in order to extract more money out of you, so that this bad feeling never returns when you're on a plane. Some might wonder, of course, whether the $39.4 billion airlines made in profit last year might have been reduced a little, in order not to squeeze even more seats onto planes. Instead, it seems that Kirby admitted that United's ambition -- if you can call it that -- is to be competitive with Southwest and Spirit. Ergo, this means squeezing in more seats, so that you feel as if you're flying one of the worst airlines in the world. Of course, airlines have found all sorts of glorious ways to nickel-and-dime passengers over the last few years. Thanks to government shielding them from anything that resembles true competition, airlines have patted your pockets down like overzealous TSA operatives, in order to extract the last vestiges of your cash. When they say they know you have many options when you fly, they know that this is piffle. On far too many routes, you may have little to no options. So, now that they have your credit card in the palm of their hand, they squeeze you physically as well as financially. What makes this even more glorious is that most airlines operate in an entirely short-term manner. They care only about their quarterly results and lo, those results dictate their executives' bonuses. Meanwhile, their staff are left to act like police officers, as passengers experience increasingly nasty conditions. You might be uplifted by Kirby's Margaret Thatcher-like insistence that there is no alternative: "I say, 'Pay a little more and you get can get seat pitch'. If it's worth it to you, you can do it. But if you just want the cheapest fare, this is what it is." This is what it is. At the heart of this is you, dear passenger. You're the person who's the reason for your deep, vain thrombosis. Take a look in the mirror and repeat these words: "I hate flying and it's all my fault." Poster Comment: Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest #1. To: Willie Green (#0) (Edited) You might be uplifted by Kirby's Margaret Thatcher-like insistence that there is no alternative: "I say, 'Pay a little more and you get can get seat pitch'. If it's worth it to you, you can do it. But if you just want the cheapest fare, this is what it is." This is what it is. I agree. The airlines would be happy enough to offer more flights on planes with less crowded seating for a higher ticket price. But the flying public does always choose the lower fare with less room. These airlines didn't invent the free market. Don't blame them for operating according to it.
#2. To: Tooconservative (#1) These airlines didn't invent the free market.
And they don't operate in a "free" market either... the passenger transportation industry is highly regulated... so quit tossing around catch phrases & buzzwords that you obviously don't understand.
#3. To: Willie Green (#0) I agree with airlines. You can always buy two seats or lose some pounds ;)
#4. To: Willie Green (#0) "If you gave the airlines more money, they'd be only too delighted to offer you more space." I believe the name for that is "a first class ticket".
#5. To: Tooconservative (#1) (Edited) It's not a free market. And given the dangers of flight, it CANNOT BE a free market. The federal government and international agencies MUST REGULATE aviation, closely, to keep the accident rate minimal. Therefore, aviation should be considered a public utility, and aviation industry profits should be regulated. Things such as passenger comfort should be put into the regulations, which by their nature will limit profitabilty, and thereby not require the more direct regulation of profit. All public utilities and regulatory monopolies or oligopolies require regulation, lest their abuse their peculiar positions to maximize profit to investors without regard to the needs of the captive public.
#6. To: Vicomte13 (#5) Things such as passenger comfort should be put into the regulations, which by their nature will limit profitabilty, and thereby not require the more direct regulation of profit. You've invented the aerial version of 0bamaCare.
#7. To: Vicomte13 (#5) This could all be solved with a VFT
#8. To: Tooconservative (#6) Airlines have been regulated since the invention of the airplane. That will not change. The current regulatory structure acts as a barrier to entry for anybody who won't race to the bottom. The traveling public need some regulatory action against the abusive practices of the airlines.
#9. To: paraclete (#7) What's a VFT?
#10. To: Vicomte13 (#9)
Very fast train
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