July 6, 2015: Finally — US airline passengers are “mad enough” at airline pricing and have at long last convinced the Justice Department to look into airline pricing.
And to also look at “add on fees” for services like checked baggage, assigned seats and on Spirit Airlines just about everything except use of the bathrooms — well so far they haven’t charged for that! Net profits for US air carriers in 2014 exceeded $12 billion dollars—with American Airlines, Delta, United and low cost Southwest Airlines (sorry not any more low cost—maybe low class?) controlling 80 % of the US market! Delta, American, and United charged combined baggage fees in excess of $2 billion in 2014. US air carriers offer over 2 million seats per day for sale — with a very few —if you can move fast enough — available for frequent flyer use. But fees on free flights cannot add up to over $1000 on an international ticket. At some “hub” airports one airline can control over 80% of all terminal gates.
I guess you could call the current airline pricing structure “pricing to a captive” market?
