June 1, 2005
Hard times for airlines
No wonder the airline industry is complaining about taxes if a 200.00 ticket in Amercia is taxed at 26%. Airlines are also complaining that low cost carriers get special treatment though I'm not sure what kind of special treatment.
I never realized that such a big chunk of ticket fares were tax. When my wife and I fly from Korea to New York I don't even want to think about how much tax we're paying.
Posted by James Trotta at June 1, 2005 1:15 AM
LOW COST CARRIERS ARE WHAT IS KEEPING OUR AIRLINES ALIVE RIGHT NOW YOU SHOULD BE THANKFUL THEY ARE THERE. LOVE TO FLY.
Posted by: JOE at June 2, 2005 12:42 AMYeah Low cost carriers are great. Two words...Value Jet! You get what you pay for and so I'll take a plane that I trust rather than be id'd by a loved one.
Posted by: Justin at June 2, 2005 10:15 AMwhat ever,,,the price of travel needs to go up there is only so much more that we can charge for ,,just raise the price to fly ,,people will pay ,,right now its cheaper to fly than take greyhound,,imagine that\....
Posted by: gary at June 2, 2005 10:58 AMDepends on where you are flying.
Posted by: Carolyn at June 2, 2005 1:04 PMDepends on where you're flying.
Posted by: Carolyn at June 2, 2005 1:04 PMThere has never been a time when an airline company has been able to justify the absurd airline industry practice of putting up cabin crew in five star hotels situated along the most prestigous strips of real estate in any city in the world!
Even under the so-called great deals they get the airlines still fork out more per room per night per cabin crew member than the amount it costs airlines to buy the help provided (by each cabin crew member) during any flight that ends with the crew staying overnight. And in most cases I bet the hotel costs more than salary paid for a complete round trip service provided by the cabin crew.
The practice is foolish to say the least. And as if that ain't enough they're now calling pretzels served to paying customers(!!!!) anti-profit villians. Perhaps it's time they returned the steam engine - it'd be much cheaper, right?
Airline crews, I can assure you, do not stay in five star hotels! As a 20 year Flight Attendant with one of the top five airlines in the U.S., I have never stayed in a five star hotel on the airlines' dollar. The major airlines have fairly similar contracts with crews when it comes to layover hotel standards, safety being the main concern. Whether or not we stay "downtown" or by the airport depends on the length of the layover. If the rest period is generally longer than say 15 hours we go to a hotel near where there are "things to do." Layovers less than 15 hrs gets you accommodations near the airport. And it seems the airlines love to build trips for crews with 10 hr layovers a majority of the time. International layovers are usually a different story. I have stayed in some pretty nice hotels around the world, some were four star. But, remember, airlines get a huge, huge, discount on room rates for crews as they are a guaranteed source of revenue for the hotel. Currently, however, I'm on a layover in a midwest city at the airport Holiday Inn. Glamour, glamour!
Posted by: Karen at June 3, 2005 6:55 PMIts a source of transportaion. A to B. Common professional and personal service comes only from within the hiring skills of an airline. That is free and makes the difference in consumer choice.
Face it, quickest / cheapest ticket is all we want and if its a tie for chosing which carrier by cost, its then personal services that an employees offer. That is why start-up companys are successful. No baggage and skeletons.
Thanks for all the comments everyone! Very interesting to hear some first hand experience from a cabin crew person.
I know that when I fly JAL, If we stay in Japan overnight they put us up in a hotel room, the same hotel that the JAL flight attendants stay at. It's fine, but it's no resort.
Interesting comments about startups with low costs. Established companies are being killed (in some cases) by their pension funds. I think I read that GM pays more to its retired workers than its active workers. Newer companies don't ahve that burden yet.
Posted by: James Trotta at June 4, 2005 1:45 AMSorry Karen, I ticked you off didn't I? Yeah there's nothng worse than being 'admired' for luxery not consumed, right. The crew are not who I am bothered by. If it weren't for you I'd probably have died on my two trips to Angola ('83 & '84). I am eternally grateful to you all. And yes that includes the Balkan Bulgarian Airlines beef cake of a woman that rescued me from Nigerian thugs in uniform during transit through Lagos in'85 - "Dat one hes wit us!" as she hustled me back onto the A1Jet fuel reeking Tupolav154.
I am peeved at the corrupt airline cash handlers. The guys overpaying for services to the airlines in off-shore cities - the two invoice system, I'm talking about. I should know because it's the most common form of business billing - theft - in Japan for instance (where I happen to live since '92). How do I know? I've seen enough paperwork to make a jury in a corruption case convict five minutes into the trial! Karen my good lady, the ultimate victems of those white collar criminals (in charge of paying the bills for you) are you the real workers of your industry - crew, technicians, logistics engineers (baggage handlers) etc. As long as your off-shore flying airlines continue to steal from themselves by paying out more than actual costs for services very soon good old US of A is going to be left with nothing but the airlines that fly domestic only. read: airlines that fly non-corrupt routes.