How the Airlines Became Cartels

Re:How the Airlines Became Cartels by ashark on Monday April 17, 2017 @02:03PM (#14133040)

The problem is comparison shopping for these upgrades. Is this flight eligible (i.e. are there any upgrades left on this aircraft)? Is this ticket eligible (see my other comment about United's bizarre rules, some tickets being wholly ineligible for the upgrade—how do you know that stuff for all the airlines you might choose for a given flight?) How much leg room is there to begin with? How does that compare to the flight I was on last time? How (if at all) does that change if this is a flight "by" major carrier X but actually serviced domestically by subcontractor Y with the international portion handled by carrier Z? How likely am I to realize my upgrade in an industry where I might not even fly on the flight I paid for at all? All of this must be investigated on a carrier-by-carrier and flight-by-flight basis, from what I can tell.

Where can I filter flights from multiple carriers to not show tickets providing under some level of legroom?

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Re:How the Airlines Became Cartels by mikeash on Monday April 17, 2017 @03:06PM (#14133538)

I wonder if an old-fashioned travel agent could take care of that for you. Failing that, maybe the concierge service many credit cards offer, or even something like getmagic.com.

I haven't tried these myself, but it seems like one of those things you can pay some money to get someone else to worry about it for you.

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Re:How the Airlines Became Cartels by GFischer on Monday April 17, 2017 @05:00PM (#14134382)

Yep, travel agents can do that for you.

I'll forward the suggestion of having this information (seat dimensions, extra legroom) more readily available to agents when booking (I work for the largest "traditional" travel agents group remaining).

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Re:How the Airlines Became Cartels by mikeash on Monday April 17, 2017 @05:09PM (#14134449)

Nice!

I haven't used a travel agent in ages. What's the experience like these days? Are they something that would be good for the average Joe like myself to use, or is it more of a specialized niche now? I understand you may be biased, but I'd still be interested in the inside perspective.

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Re:How the Airlines Became Cartels by GFischer on Monday April 17, 2017 @05:32PM (#14134603)

I'm not really much of an insider, I haven't used a travel agent either ! I'm just a developer who has recently entered the travel industry :)

What I do think is that you're not getting much of a discount going online (and agencies get their own exclusive deals too) - what you do get buying with an online travel agency (OTA) (and I personally like) is more control, but at the expense of advice and experience. If you're comfortable taking the risk of taking wrong choices and like setting your own itinerary, online offers more "freedom". However, it seems that customers 50 and over value the agents' experience a lot. Personally, there are several things I would have missed if I booked flights myself: legroom, connection times, the fact that you need to have a ticket be the same "segment" to get protected if things go wrong - although separate "segments" can be cheaper, etc., and, most importantly, someone to call if things go wrong (as they unfortunately often do in travel), who will have more leverage with the supplier than a mere customer. Of course, there must be good and bad agents, as with all services. Also, agents don't make much money (if any) on air tickets anymore, they rely on hotel and cruise and other ancillary services to make their money (or a service fee).

I've been told that top travel agents are worth their weight in gold (and are paid as such!), the guys working for the Elite travel division make the lives of business and luxury travel a lot better, they know the arcane commands in the mainframe-terminal GDSs by heart and can do permutations that are simply not allowed in most web interfaces.

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Re:How the Airlines Became Cartels by mikeash on Tuesday April 18, 2017 @10:06AM (#14138891)

You're more of an insider than I am, so thanks for the perspective. Stuff like "segments" and help when things go wrong certainly sound compelling.

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Re:How the Airlines Became Cartels by nunez on Monday April 17, 2017 @08:02PM (#14135495)

Travel agents these days are only useful if you're planning on doing a very complex trip (international, multiple stops) or if you need to make complicated changes to your itinerary. Most of the data they have is comparable to what's available on ITA.

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Re:How the Airlines Became Cartels by rconti on Monday April 17, 2017 @06:05PM (#14134832)

"Basic Economy" is United's new bargain-basement fare class, meant to compete with similar offerings from other airlines. I don't think it even existed a month or two ago, which might be why this ineligibility to choose Economy Plus confusion comes from. At least historically, you could always pay for an Economy Plus seat no matter when or how or where you bought your seat.

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