August 6, 2008
Would you pay $7 for a Pillow or take a 2 minute flight?
Those annoying extra charges that the airlines keep adding on are in the news again. JetBlue announced a few days ago that they would begin charging $7 for a blanket and pillow on their flights. (You can take your own pillow and blanket if you don’t want to pay $7, but would that then be considered to be your carry on item or personal item?)
You can keep the blanket and pillow, presumably to take with you next time you fly JetBlue; and you also receive a $5 voucher to Bed, Bath and Beyond – a major home furnishings store. And apparently, this isn’t just any old pillow – it features a new kind of fabric technology that helps to keep out pet dander, mold, pollen and dust.
This is just the latest in a series of fees imposed by nearly all the airlines in recent years, initiated to offset high fuel prices. Virtually all the major airlines now either charge for checked bags, or for checking more than one bag. And the standby policy may be the next perk to disappear - Frontier Airlines recently announced it is doing away with its policy of free standby for same day flights, as well as raising the amount of the change fee from $100 to $150.
You probably don’t need to bother with a pillow for some of these flights, which are among the shortest scheduled flights in the world. I discovered that Newark to Allentown/Bethlehem takes just about ten minutes and Flint to Detroit is about 11 minutes flying time. I wonder who takes these flights when it seems as though it would be quicker to drive, especially with the time it now takes to check in for a flight. It’s now easier to take the train from Paris to London, rather than fly – Eurostar trains now make the journey in just over two hours.
But the shortest regularly scheduled flight seems to be the service between Westray and Papa Westray in Scotland’s Orkney Islands, which apparently takes about a minute! I can’t find anything to verify this..has anyone taken any of these short flights or know of any others?
Guest entry by Mancunian
Posted by James Trotta at August 6, 2008 10:35 AM | TrackBack
Let them charge for the brat in the same seat. Let them fine for loud out of control behavior of kids.
Let them speed up the cocktail service.
Just leave me, my tranq, and my luggage out of it.
Obviously, people aren't taking that flight as their final destination, but instead are connecting to larger hub airports.
Google shows the driving distance between Flint and Detroit at 74 miles. If I live in Flint, I can save an hour in each direction by checking in at the Flint airport and connecting in Detroit. Allentown to Newark is even further at 78 miles. Since both Detroit and Newark are hub cities, it makes sense.
BTW, Westray and Papa Westray are on two different islands making driving a bit difficult.
This is rediculous. The folks at Southwest had vision and foresight to lock in their fuel pricing through 2012. Obviously, the executives at these other airlins have neither the vision nor the foresight to do the same. Now they want to charge, I suppose, by the peanut. How silly.
Posted by: Joseph Ettore at August 7, 2008 5:21 AM7$ for a good reusable pillow (esp. if it is a coast to coast flight) is not bad! And a $5 coupon for Bed, Bath and Beyond. It sure is better than paying $2 for the headphones.
Posted by: PK at August 7, 2008 3:31 PMIf Airlines want to go to a more european model and charge me for everything (early boarding, window/aisle seats, soft drinks, etc) I'm perfectly fine with that. Let me pay for what I'd like and not for the other things.
Posted by: H. J. B. at August 14, 2008 4:45 AM