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Airlines Selling More of What Used to be Free

by Neil Woodburn (RSS feed) on May 26th 2007 at 7:34AM

Remember the old days of getting pampered on airplanes? Drinks, food, hot towels all for free?

Well, those are indeed the old days.

According to Michelle Higgins of the New York Times, we can expect to see a whole lot less of free in-flight goodies and a whole lot more of pricy items to buy. Higgins refers to this new trend as "à la carte pricing." Um, yes, I'll have the airplane seat for $200 and a bag of chips for $3. Ugh.

Occasionally, this works in the favor of the passenger. Carriers such as Spirit Airlines offer very low ticket prices and make their money by selling food and other goods on board. Normally, however, at least with the major airlines, the death of free in-flight meals is nothing more than a cost-cutting measure; ticket prices remain the same.

Continental and Jet Blue, Higgins points out, are two exceptions. Continental still provides free hot meals and Jet Blue still forks out the free coffee and satellite TV. Meanwhile, American Airlines is selling me M&Ms and a bottle of water for $5. Man, it's like I'm back in prison!

Filed under: Airlines

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