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Travel trend: adding yourself to the ‘no fly’ list

April 21, 2008

Give up air travel altogether? You’ve probably heard whispers about it in the aftermath of cancellation-gate. And following United Airlines’ announcement yesterday that it would bump its change fee to $150 from $100 and add Saturday-night stay requirements to many of its flights, who can blame travelers for wanting to ground themselves?

What most observers — and certainly people in the U.S. airline industry — don’t realize is how big the backlash could be. Travelers are seriously thinking about adding themselves to a voluntary “no fly” list.

Take the following e-mail from reader Richard Factor, who said he’s already on the list.

I’ve rediscovered the joys of walking around. I’ve rearranged my automobile commute so I rarely encounter traffic problems.

I can’t help wondering how many people have simply dropped out of the travel rat race just on account of the idiotic Saturday night stayover “rule” of the airlines. For all their “yield management,” I wonder if the airlines wouldn’t do better to drop ALL of that crap and look for a new business model that isn’t guaranteed to irritate and drive away their customers.

They can hardly do any worse.

Some air travelers have already had enough of the airline industry’s silly fees and substandard service. The question is, how many more are out there?

If I were a bettin’ kinda guy, I’d say a lot more travelers will ground themselves voluntarily as the busy summer travel season approaches. What do you think?

(Updated 10:35 a.m. to add Rooney commentary.)

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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23 comments

  • Joe Farrell

    At least we know how they are gonna pay for the increased bumping cost. . . .

  • Richard C

    Could not agree more. I recently drove my family of 4 from Chicago to Baltimore to see friends. Even with high gas prices, it was much cheaper than flying. I had the luxury of taking toothpaste and snacks for the kids with no danger of some drooling TSA cretin taking them off me. And when the time came to return, I jumped in the car and left. No risking UA or AA canceling my flight and having to deal with their obnoxious, tenth-rate customer “service” staff!

  • John Porter

    We’ve cancelled any plans to fly in the future (except for employer-paid business trips) and will drive on our summer vacation. With gas prices so high, it may not be a whole lot cheaper, but it certainly is a lot easier–and less stressful!

  • http://www.shipcriticblog.com Anne Campbell

    Andy Rooney suggest this on 60 Minutes last night. Pick out a week and nobody fly that whole week.

  • Christopher Elliott
  • Joe Farrell

    I just checked airfares for a trip back to our vacation home in SC for 4th of July week. Given our schedules and the fact we have a child who is bound by school vacation times, we are probably as flexible as the average American family.

    From BDL-SAV or CHS, leaving Sat am 6/28 and returning Sun 7/6 air fares were $560 round trip at our preferred departure time, for a total of $1720 or so, Adding on $130 for a car rental, and $75 to park at the airport outbound, the total would have been $1925. We could have shaved about $200 off by departing 6pm on Sat and returning 6am, thereby losing a day of vacation and waking up @ 4am on the day we’d return.

    Total travel times would be about 8 hours door to door.

    Now, the CRAZY thing is that we own an airplane. That airplane travels one-third the speed of the airliners. It takes a total of right around 9.5 hours to go roundtrip. That about 5 hours one way and 4.5 hours the other. It costs us $155 an hour to operate this airplane, including fuel, insurance, maintenance, hangar, etc etc etc. Thats only about $1475 round trip. Adding on about $25 to park at our destination its $1500 round trip and the average door to door time is 5.5-6 hours. It’s $200 less than the cheapest airline transportation.

    You would THINK that it would cost more to fly yourself, wouldn’t you?

    You would it would take less time when you are flying 3 times as fast, wouldn’t you?

    It never fails to amaze me that our travel anywhere less than 1000nm always takes less time and generally costs less. The only times it is generally less expensive to take an airliner is when its just me – but then the trip is deductible — no matter what it costs – so – given last minute business airfares, well, it is less expensive to fly myself.

    It NEVER used to be like that – until the last 4-5 years. We could drive, but its 13-15 hours each way, driving through NYC, PHL, Dover, Balt. DC and Richmond on 95 – everyone knows that would be torture. Total cost there would be 35 cents a mile for fuel and incremental maintenance, so the total vehicle cost for the vehicle we have would be $643.50 plus whatever you spend enroute to eat – say $750. Its funny how the expense of general aviation is really not that much more than driving.

  • Doug

    Four years ago I was Platinum on America West/US Airways…three years ago, I was Gold. I was given Silver status with US Airways this year…why, I have no idea. I quite flying altogether two years ago. I drive from Phoenix to California, only when it is absolutely required…and I’ve exhausted all technological means of resolving whatever issue may be afoot. I’ve never been happier and stress-free.

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  • Mike Roberts

    We won’t be flying either. The hassle of dealing with TSA’s security charade is a big part of it. It adds a lot of time to travel and opens everyone up to Robin Fed and their merry band of thieves who loot people’s luggage without fear of retribution. The increasingly claustrophobic accomodations onboard the plane ruin what is left of the experience by causing my legs to be crushed even if the seat in front of me doesn’t land on top of my shins. The Greyhound buses that I’ve been on are more comfortable and frequently cleaner than the cloth petri dishes on airliners.

    The time savings for flight is destroyed by the security measures and almost constant delays. I add 6 hours to the flight time to calculate how long it will take me to fly to my destination (1 hour to the airport + 2 hours early for security and checkin, + 1 hour for delays + 1 hour for luggage retrieval + 1 hour to travel from the airport to our final destination).

    While I can fly to Boston in 1 hour for about $100, I can drive there in 5 hours instead of spending 7 hours to fly.

  • Jasper

    Who says people aren’t already not flying? Why are all those airlines going south? Not because they’re full of customers.

    Chris, you have probably access to the actual number of flights people take. Are there numbers for the *number of people* flying, i.e. eliminating the double counts for people that fly more than once a year? Could you report those?

    As far as I can see, the airline industry is so much in the hands of bean counters that they are not seeing reality anymore. When they see reduced ticket sales, they can only think in further price reductions and cost cuts, because that is the only way they can think. They can not evaluate their own product anymore. Neither do they have the balls to simply state that service comes with a price tag. At the same time, they try to hide as much of the pricing increases in fees and surcharges.

    People have stopped flying, as much as they can. They only fly for business, when their boss tells them to, and to family and vacations that are not within driving range (transcontinental, Caribbean, Europe, Asia).

    People don’t want to deal with crappy service, delayed or canceled flights, extra fees and surcharges through the roof, nor do they want to deal with the preposterous “security” measures inflicted onto them by the government, and readily accepted by the airline industry.

    I think it would have helped if the airlines had protested a bit against all that folly? Even if they’d only done so for show, it would have generated some good will.

  • Jeanette

    Sounds like after our upcoming trip over Memorial Day weekend to visit family in California, we won’t be flying for a while. While I’d love to drive to visit family and enjoy some sights along the way, my husband and I rarely get more than one week off work at a time. I guess we’ll just enjoy local vacations and hope that our kids grandparents can visit us sometime.

  • SJ

    I flew through Minneapolis several months ago. I looked out the airplane window, noticing that 1/3 of the gates had no airplane in them. The thought struck me that airports have gone the way of the bus terminals, railway stations, and seaports before them. People visit these places for nostalgic reasons. In the not-to-distant future I expect airports to engender the same sense of nostalgia as the visitors marvel at a means of transportation clearly rooted in the past!

  • Rick Beato

    I never ever understood what difference it would make to any airline to have me stay overnight on a Saturday. If they sell me two trips, one going and one back, why would they possibly care how long I stay? It just makes no sense to me.

    Of course the software that an airline would use to book and rebook tickets must be pretty old-fashioned to justify the ridiculous $100 fee, much less the laughable increase to $150.

    And there are still Americans who supported Ronald Reagan who do not realize what a mess he left us with his deregulation. We will get no help from the government.

  • JARaphs

    Eeeew – more fees! Change fees, luggage fees, seat reservation fees… they all stink. But I will keep flying for sure – I wish I had more time to travel. There are many, many spectacular airfare deals out there for those able to plan ahead.

  • Carrie C.

    My husband won’t fly unless he must because he wants to avoid being demeaned, demoralized and dehumanized for no good reason. In fact, he is driving back from WA to NY as I write this. (I flew this time.) Today, I had to take a last-minute trip from EWR to BWI. I took the shuttle to the airport and then took the train from Newark to Baltimore. Without the 2-hr lead time required by the airport, the train trip took no longer than a flight, was way more comfortable with plenty of leg room, and cost less than a third of the price.

  • Mike

    I love the idea of flying, but I can’t stand what it has turned into.

  • http://www.CarrieAndJonathan.com Jonathan (in Buenos Aires)

    I have to say that I disagree. I think people are more prone to travel than ever, and what we’re seeing from both the airlines and the security checkpoints in airports is a test of how far things can go before people get fed up and say enough.

    But I don’t think we’ve reached that point yet.

    On a slightly more positive note, we flew American Airlines on our way to Buenos Aires, and despite everyone’s complaints and their recent issues, we were pleased with our flight.

  • http://www.PriUPS.com Richard Factor

    Looks like I accidentally started this entry with my email to Mr. Elliott. And it looks like there’s a lot of agreement about just how nasty a problem flying has become. I like to look for solutions to problems rather than whining about them all the time. My “solution” to most of MY travel woes is to just stay home unless a trip is essential. But that doesn’t solve the airlines’ problems, which are largely caused by their seemingly inescapable business model: Fill the seats before the plane takes off, or forever lose the revenue.

    Their method, which involves a variable pricing structure, “rules,” restrictions, Saturday-night stayovers, and virtuoso nickle-and-diming, is guaranteed to engender hatred from all but the most phlegmatic or stoic. I actually have a candidate solution, at least for heavily-travelled routes, and it is this:

    1: Get rid of schedules. Just have a gate for LAX, a gate for SFO, a gate for MIA, and a gate for any other city where you can fill up an airplane in an hour.

    2: Share that gate among airlines. (Let them fight each other for it – leave me out of it!)

    3: No advance reservations or purchase, no different fares, and charge for luggage by weight, since that’s a true expense the airlnes must bear. Pay at the gate and board immediately.

    If this seems similar to a bus, so mote it be. The plane flies full and profitably, everybody pays the same and flies when they want to. Never rush for the plane or worry about security taking too long – there’s no “your flight” to miss.

    Will this work? I honestly don’t know. I’m hardly an expert in airline operations (or much of anything else) and it clearly won’t work in cases where there’s a low volume of traffic since it would tie up a plane, passengers, and gate for many hours. But if it will work, or even if it might, I’d love to see it tried. Surely the airlines have enough smart people, even if they keep them hidden, to realize that the current situation is unstable and untenable.

  • Joe Farrell

    R Factor – sounds like what PSA used to do in California before deregulation.

    Hourly flights, friendly, attractive flight attendants and flight crew with a sense of fun, simple fare structures, a dedicated gate @ LAX and SFO for the Freeway Flyer, $20 on the late flights each way, $40-50 during the day. Every once in a while you could fly to Burbank and San Diego and Lake Tahoe.

    That worked too well, they made money and then got too big for their britches and started losing money flying to places like Medford and Yakima and Seattle and Spokane, and got eaten by USAir, ending common sense in the airline industry for ever.

  • Jim

    Flying? Only if I have to. We flew from Iowa to Florida in 2001 and again for a cruise in 2006. We drive everywhere else – Niagara Falls, Chicago, Minneapolis, doesn’t matter. It’s more relaxing, and I don’t have to put up with the TSA treating everyone like terrorists.

    We taking a trip to Denver with my patents next year, and I think we’ll take the train for a different experience. Again, way more relaxing and lots of leg and stretch room.

  • Jim J

    I have quit flying on the legacy carriers. My airline of choice is Southwest and rarely do I encounter any sort of problem. This past weekend, my wife and I flew from Tampa to Providence, RI and return. Other than making sure that one of us visited the Southwest web site 24 hours before flight time to procure “A” boarding passes, there was no stress involved. Had we wanted to change our reservations anytime before day of the flight, we would have been able to do so without penalty. If the new itinerary was more expensive, we would have had to pay the difference. If the new flights cost less, Southwest would have issued a credit. Unlike the system that was in effect before October of 2007, we did not have to stand in line for an hour before flight time to insure a good choice of seats. Instead, an announcement was made about five minutes before boarding and everyone in the “A” group lined up at stations which indicated the number on the boarding pass. My pass number was A37 so all I had to do is find the location with the sign saying A36-40. After the preboards got on, the entire “A” group was allowed to board. The same process was repeated for people holding B and C boarding passes.

    Both flights left on time and arrived early. The cabin crew was friendly and accommodating. Okay, there was no first class and no food served, but the seats were comfortable, the seat pitch a couple of inches better than what is found in the coach section on most legacy carriers, and soft drinks and snacks were served at no charge.

    Also, Southwest’s Rapid-Rewards frequent flyer plan usually has seats available on the days I want to fly. That has not always been the case on the legacy carriers.

    When I can’t fly Southwest, my choices are Jet-Blue and Air-Tran. I won’t give another dollar to a legacy carrier until they start treating me as a valued customers.

  • John Vanderplough

    There are a lot of comments I agree with here. I haven’t traveled by air since 2004, but must do so this summer for business reasons. (There’s no easy drive from Ohio to Queretaro, Mexico.) I’ve worked for two airlines– one legacy carrier (5 years)and one upstart (which only lasted four months) and have been able to see the world at large. I’ve decided to see the USA for future vacations, driving on back roads to smaller sights and travelling leisurely and stress-free. Avoiding air travel altogether is my new priority. Rail and buses are also viable transport modes besides driving.

    We just need to look for and use alternatives within the whole journey.

  • http://www.psiworld.org/past.html psi fly

    I couldn’t agree more. Flying is such a hassle now-easier to take train.

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