Why Airlines Want to Make You Suffer: The New Yorker

Why Airlines Want to Make You Suffer: The New Yorker

"But the [airline] fee model comes with systematic costs that are not immediately obvious. Here's the thing: in order for fees to work, there needs be something worth paying to avoid. That necessitates, at some level, a strategy that can be described as "calculated misery." Basic service, without fees, must be sufficiently degraded in order to make people want to pay to escape it. And that's where the suffering begins....

"When customers miscalculate their schedules or their plans change, the airline is ready with its punishment: the notorious two-hundred-dollar rebooking and change fee. Those change fees are particularly lucrative: in 2014, Delta and United are projected to collect nearly a billion dollars each. And the greater social cost comes from those who didn't change their tickets even though they wanted to."

The airline fee model presents some dilemmas to the employee traveling at company expense and the company buying the ticket. Are all "extras" -- even luggage fees -- the responsibility of the employee? Will companies steer travel toward the handful of airlines that don't charge luggage or change fees? How much is wifi and enough leg and elbow room to work productively on the plane worth to a company? How much is it worth to have the employee arrive at the destination rested, happy, and ready to work, rather than harried, hassled, and annoyed?