Airlines have taught people to go for the cheapest possible fare. And then they get nailed with all kinds of add ons, such as checked or carry on luggage. Seat selection.
A few days ago I helped a friend book flights from our city, Santa Fe, to California and back. I'm a former airline employee, although I left the business more than 40 years ago, I'm quite comfortable with helping a friend book his flights.
In the process of looking at fares, I was able to point out to him that by going for a slightly higher fare, he would get one free checked suitcase, otherwise costing him $30 per flight, and immediate seat selection, rather than taking his chances at the airport. He was happy to do all this. Oh, and it wound up costing him less than the cheapest possible fare that would have required a $30 bag check fee per flight, and perhaps a surcharge for a seat selection.
I want to repeat: airlines have taught people to go for the cheapest possible fare. Regardless of the consequences. Please rethink that.
My somewhat dirty secret is that the rare times I fly, I book a first class seat. I've learned that if I book several months in advance I can get a fare I'm willing to pay. Sometimes it's a restricted fare, but it's still in first class. Which means I typically get the bypass thing for security, and I absolutely get priority boarding.
Background. For ten years I was an airline agent at National Airport in Washington DC. Travel benefits were truly amazing. Essentially I got to fly for free or nearly free, and was almost always boarded in first class. And even thought the flight attendants always knew I as a non-rev (industry jargon for non revenue passenger, meaning we weren't paying a real fare) I was always treated very well, always got my first choice of meal, always got LOTS of alcohol. I was spoiled, and I knew it at the time.
So let's gloss over a few decades. I left the business, got married, had kids, they grew up, I got divorced and moved to another part of the country. Ever since 9/11 I've had no patience with the TSA. For one thing, I originally started before any security whatsoever, understand why we got it, and understand even more clearly that post 9/11 security is mostly theater.
Which is part of why I book first class. It enables me to bypass most of the crap.
I realize that even booked in advance, a relatively cheap first class fare might well be more than many of you are willing to pay. I get that. But look harder at the cost of a plane ticket.
More to the point, whenever you are booking a flight on line, please look beyond the cheapest possible fare. Double check things like cost of seat selection, cost of checking a bag. You might discover that a slightly higher fare results in being able to choose your seat when you book the flight, and then not having a checked bag fee, means that the final cost is actually less than the cheapest possible fare.
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