$15 fee for Seat Assignment on Northwest, is this normal?

> My sister has a flight on NW today. She called the airline last night
> because at the time of her reservation there were only middle seats
> available, and she wanted to change her seat assignment. The phone agent
> told her that there were now plenty of window and aisle seats available,
> and that she could change the seat assignment for a $15 fee

Booking (or changing a booking) on the phone with an agent costs $ 15.00
She should have done it "online" at NWA.com

> why do they care if the ticket is purchased on their own web site.

Because most agency bookings are made through a GDS
(Apollo/Galileo/Sabre/Amadeus/Worldpsan) and the GDS charge the airline a
fee for that service. That fee is in addtion to the cost of holding the
booking in their own computer whereas if the booking is made via the website
they only pay the cost of holding the booking in their computer. I
personally think that is a simplistic arguement - it ignores other costs
that the airline incurs when they look after the booking themselves.

Does she have an "online Worldperks" account with password etc ? I do (for
about 20 yrs) and it works fine for me.

>> Booking (or changing a booking) on the phone with an agent costs $ 15.00
>> She should have done it "online" at NWA.com
>
> She tried, it wouldn't let her change it. Maybe you have to book online in
> order to be able to make changes online.

On 22/05/08 16:45, in article fCfZj.2$Ri.0@flpi146.ffdc.sbc.com, "SMS"
<scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote:

> I think that passengers over a certain width should be charged a
> surcharge, i.e. 100%, and be given a second seat. `

This is for the obese, no problem.

But---

The problem over the years is that normal people have a problem, and there
is the continual problem of sharing an arm rest with a stranger. Also a
normal 170 pound male will have a shoulder problem with another.
My wife really objects at always (she feels) getting a middle
seat in a three seat configuration.

> This would help other
> passengers too. But charging by weight isn't a bad idea either,

The problem is making the check procedure in procedure lengthy.
They have introduced electonic tickets to cut costs on check
in. The charging for a bag will be done how?

In a recent trip from Paris the US and back from Miami, I
found check in with American easy in Paris but incredibly
slow in Miami when actually few people were checking in
in Miami. It was slow slow slow. Charging for this and that
and billing it will be a problem in the US.

> I remember when MIA used to have pay toilets.

I have never encountered it. Who is MIA?

> What American is doing with charging for a first piece of checked
> luggage, while at the same time scrapping 75 planes, and laying off
> thousands of employees, makes it pretty clear that they realize that
> leisure travelers are simply not going to be willing to pay the fares it
> takes to be profitable. Airline travel will slowly become more for the
> wealthy. However unlike in other countries, there isn't much of a train
> network to replace the airlines.

Basically, I rarely travel in the US anymore. for years we met our
daughter in the Caribbean with her flying form the US and we from
France. We always fly schedules and Air France provided good service
to the French Caribbean islands, and local airlines can hook you up
to other places. My view is that currently only flights in the
US are really unpleasant. And now they will get no better.

On 23/05/08 16:39, in article 4836d5e7$0$5702$4c368faf@roadrunner.com,
"TMOliver" <tmoliverjrFIX@hot.FIX> wrote:

> Why, Earl, have you not looked at First or Business? Civilization is but a
> bulkhead away.

They are rip offs, so I don't look into them. If you look at the space
occupied by the passenger, you get maybe twice the space for 10 times
the price.

> If travel aboard SS FRANCE and her contemporary competitors out flirting
> with the Blue Riband was still realistic and cost-efficient, there would be
> daily sailings from Cherbourg, Southhampton and the Hudson River piers. The
> only current "Transatlantic" offerings, "repositioning" evolutions involving
> cruise ships, are essentially reduced priced "throw-ins" by the owners to
> produce some revenue for a necessary ship's movement, usually sailing well
> below capacity with reduced catering staffs. Sadly, for those of us
> enamored of the great liners, FRANCE represents an age as archaic as that of
> Brunel's GREAT EASTERN.

Yes and archaic was better. I figured the economics at the time. It was also
subsidized by the French taxpayer to the extent that we passengers paid
half the real price.

> Whether we're talking about Euros, Francs or Dollars, the comparable cost of
> economy air travel is so much less than it was 40 years ago as to be
> astounding. As for comparing US domestic air service with flights within
> Europe, you may get a meal between Paris and Athens on a "flag" carrier like
> AF,

AF no longer is a flag carrier and they made a billion euros last year. The
fuel costs are now eating that up and they lost money this quarter.

Clearly fossil fuels are a non-sustainable source of fuels for land-air
and sea transport and not much else is available. Technology might
not lead man out of this blind alley.

> but I'll take a cheap seat on a budget airline, priced below cheap US
> tickets because of volume,

I have long ago gotten passed the "cheapie solution" but of various
inconviencies. This summer we will, as we do every summer, take out
September vacation in Greece and the main criteria are flight times.
We take the AF flight at about 9:30 in the morning (late enough to avoid
having to get to the airport at some ridiculous hour) to Athenes which
allows us to taxi to the boat at the port and and take a boat
to Aegina and arrive before 6PM. The return is on a flight which leaves
Athenes in the evening at 19:30, allow us to reverse the process which
otherwise would require us taking a hotel in Athenes. I checked the prices
today, about 300 euros each, which is OK with us. One pays a little more
for the 9:30 departure.

There is a family joke, a NY cartoonist once did one on a man chasing
a turkey around the living room with his wife nagging him "oven ready
turkey costs a little bit more but oven ready turkey is worth a little
bit more".

Convenience all that way, if it costs an extra hundred dollars
so what. Most have enough money for that. We have, at times taken the
day flight back from the US (e.g. Boston => London) to avoid loosing
a night's sleep on the place, staying in London for a few days and taking
the TGV back to Paris. Now the TGV is an advance is civilized traveling,
which air travel no longer is. It is marching backwards. And the people
searching for ever cheaper flights are leading that march.

> but with creature comforts and appeal pretty
> close to "Greyhound" standards, the same bus-like quality with which you are
> served in the US.

In looking at the junk sold in the "Sky Mall" magazine of American Airlines
I thought that one could well judge the level of a particular civilisation
by that kind of junk merchandising. So the junk travel is also sold.

> The fates of KLM and SwissAir are history, the names
> preserved but the old identities submerged in new corporate shrouds. Then
> there's the new Ottoman Empire, the sick man of Europe, "Ill-atalia"...

KLM provided, because they hooked up with AF, with good service to Ghana.
They even allowed a two 44 pound each bag limit, which helped us in moving
books for a library we are helping down there. Africans travel with a lot
of baggage, but some others too.

On 26/05/08 18:34, in article Xns9AAA60EE81C72thefrogprince@69.28.186.120,
"Larry in AZ" <usenet2@DE.LETE.THISljvideo.com> wrote:

> A reasonable analysis...

Indeed, John may be unemployed at this time.

Merely a possibility, mind you. I am sure he
is not among the homeless.