The misery of airline travel might be our fault

This episode delves into the complexities of airline travel, particularly the frustrations many passengers face, and questions whether the deteriorating experience is a result of consumer choices and industry practices.

1. The shift in airline seating policies, like Southwest's new assigned seating, reflects changes in industry standards driven by economic pressures.
2. Unbundling of services has led to a more complex pricing structure, which can sometimes result in a less pleasant travel experience.
3. There is a debate on whether regulations requiring more transparency and customer compensation are enough to address the issues in the airline industry.
4. The consolidation of airlines and the reduction in competition might contribute to less favorable conditions for passengers.
5. Despite the negatives, the evolution of air travel has made it more accessible, though often at the cost of comfort and convenience.

1: Introduction

Charles Lane introduces the topic of the fragile state of air travel, joined by Katherine Rampel and Mark Fisher to discuss recent changes and frustrations in the industry. Charles Lane: "This week we're talking about air travel and why the whole system seems so fragile these days."

2: Industry Changes

Discussion on Southwest Airlines changing its seating policy and the economic implications of such decisions. Katherine Rampel: "It does differentiate, or has differentiated the airline from its competitors."

3: Consumer Impact

Exploration of how unbundling services like seat selection and baggage fees affects consumers. Mark Fisher: "You end up in the absolute hellish circumstance of spirit or frontier, where everything is a separate charge."

4: Regulation and Solutions

Conversation about potential regulatory solutions to improve the airline travel experience. Katherine Rampel: "I don't have problems with this kind of price discrimination, and I think it does enable airlines to offer very low price point options."

1. Check airline policies on seating and baggage in advance to avoid surprises.
2. Consider the total cost of travel, including fees for "extras," when comparing prices.
3. Be aware of your rights regarding cancellations and delays to better navigate disruptions.
4. Look for airlines that offer better customer service even if they might cost more.
5. Use complaints and feedback channels to communicate issues to airlines and regulatory bodies.

Airline travel is increasingly exasperating. Any blip, whether it’s a weather event or a technical problem, leads to cascading days of delays and cancellations. Why does it all seem so fragile? Charles Lane, Catherine Rampell and Marc Fisher discuss the economics of flying and how customers might be helping drive a race to the bottom.

People

Charles Lane, Katherine Rampel, Mark Fisher

Companies

Southwest Airlines

Books

None

Guest Name(s):

None

Content Warnings:

None

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Katherine Rampel
My husband was actually on a flight once with an emotional support pony.

Mark Fisher
Whoa. That's pretty cool.

Katherine Rampel
Which was wearing a diaper.

Mark Fisher
Wow.

Katherine Rampel
Which I guess is better than the alternative.

Charles Lane
That is. But yes, that is not a true story.

Katherine Rampel
It is absolutely a true story.

Charles Lane
Wait, you mean like a Shetland pony?

Katherine Rampel
I don't know. I wasn't on the flight. It was some little horse thing.

Charles Lane
Yeah, that's a Shetland pony.

Katherine Rampel
Okay. Either way, should not be on plane with humans.

Charles Lane
Little Sebastian from parks and Recreation. This is impromptu with Washington Post opinions, a show where we bring you conversations about the issues we can't stop thinking about. I'm Charles Lane, deputy opinions editor. And this week we're talking about air travel and why the whole system seems so fragile these days. There's delays and cancellations, but also exasperation with the always changing boarding procedures, the increased cost of checking bags or needing to pay to get a seat that isn't cramped in the back of the plane. Southwest, the one commercial airline that was holding out against priority boarding and more premium options announced last week, they're changing tactics. Why has airline travel gotten so miserable, and is there anything to do about it? I'm joined by two of my colleagues to discuss.

Katherine Rampel
I'm Katherine Rampel. I'm an opinion columnist. I mostly write about economics, public policy and related issues.

Mark Fisher
And I'm Mark Fisher. I'm also an opinion columnist. I write primarily about the Washington area and kind of the meaning of Washington, DC, but kind of range around. And this week, writing about Southwest.

Charles Lane
So, yes, last week, Southwest Airlines made news, announcing that they will start assigning seats and offer premium seating that has more legroom. The company had stuck with its open seating policy ever since it had gone into business in the 1970s. Do you guys think this change was inevitable? Does Southwest have to do this to compete with the other major airlines? Let's start with you, Katherine.

Katherine Rampel
I'm actually in some ways a little bit surprised in that I thought that there were people who liked this particular arrangement, and that's why they were loyal to Southwest. It does differentiate, or has differentiated the airline from its competitors. And now what's different about it? Why would you choose to fly Southwest over a, another option, particularly if the seeding is comparably priced?

Mark Fisher
Mark, I don't think they needed to do this unless they were faced with the situation they are faced with, which is that their profits were down about half in the second quarter from the same period the year before. So if that's their main goal, it's to pack the livestock into their tin tubes as quickly and bloodlessly as they can in order to make more money to get things moving faster than should. Sure, they had to do this, but really they didn't have to do this. And it is an elemental shift in their philosophy. When they started out 50, 60 years ago, southwest specifically presented itself as being there to democratize the skies. That was their phrase. Their whole pitch was we're all about everybody having equal access. And that meant equal access to the best seats, too. And so if you could game the system and check in exactly 24 hours in advance, you would get the seat of your choice. And it had nothing to do with how much money you had or how much money you were paying them.

Charles Lane
The airlines make billions each year on, quote, extras. Things like baggage fees, premium seating options. All those things used to be sort of things that just went with the ticket. Now they're unbundled. Does that actually have value for customers? Does it give people more choice?

Mark Fisher
In theory, yes. And so if you subscribe to that whole notion of dynamic pricing and all of the unbundling, I mean, you end up in the absolute hellish circumstance of spirit or frontier, where everything is a separate charge. I was on a flight on a budget airline to Iceland last year, and they didn't bother even having cushions on the seats. It was just the raw seat that's delivered from Boeing.

Charles Lane
The raw seat, I like that phrase. I never heard that before. The raw seat.

Mark Fisher
And so that fight to the bottom, that's where you end up. It was sitting on a metal seat and having to pay for water. And next you'll have to pay for the vent over your seat.

Charles Lane
That sounds like going to a commander's game, that FedEx field. Sit on a metal seat and they make you pay for water.

Mark Fisher
The unbundling is cynical attempt to say that you're having more choice as a consumer. And yes, if you're 23 years old and traveling with a tissue instead of a luggage, then sure, you can get a much cheaper flight on spirit and be insulted at every step of the way. But for the average passenger, the unbundling just means paying more money and getting it zapped to you at the end of the process rather than with it getting a price up front.

Charles Lane
Well, Catherine, you are sort of the resident economist or economics columnist. I'm surely you have a little more sympathy with this effort to harness incentives.

Katherine Rampel
Yeah, I don't have problems with this kind of price discrimination, and I think it does enable airlines to offer very low price point options that they might not otherwise, which gets people access to services that they might not otherwise have. My complaint is about the transparency. So I don't have a problem with airlines charging more money for different amenities. But I do think that all of that information should be disclosed upfront. And there has been some regulatory effort over the years to make sure that happens. Like when travel aggregators like booking.com or Kayak, et cetera, when they index different flight options, they have to include the taxes and fees, whereas some airlines in the past would have said they're only showing the fair price, not the taxes and fees, even though the taxes and fees are required.

Charles Lane
Yeah, I agree. I think transparency is a huge issue for me. We live in the age of the teaser price for almost everything, and I have to admit I'm a sucker for the teaser price. When I see, oh, I can get to the west coast for $59, I click on that and then I realize, no, that's not really what I'm going to pay. Let's shift gears a little bit just to the physical experience of flying and psychological experience of flying. Mark you, I'm not going to say how old you are, but like me, you're a little tiny bit older than Katherine. And how has the experience changed over the course of your lifetime?

Mark Fisher
To go back to the ancient era before Jimmy Carter deregulated the airline industry? When you and I were younger, Chuck, prices in the air were pretty strictly regulated. And as a result, the airlines competed primarily by services that they offered, comfort and quality of food and quality of seats and the amount of legroom and all of that, and the boarding process as well. Then Jimmy Carter said, oh, I'm going to deregulate this and prices are going to come down. And we did have a little period there of actual price competition and there were discount airlines, people express and New York Air, and, or you could choose Trump airlines and get leather seats and maybe even get to your destination. So there was this moment of flowering of choice. But very quickly, with the exception of Southwest, the other airlines decided that they were going to move into this dynamic pricing era of unbundling and all of that. The dream of the deregulation has really been lost. You have these exceptions like spirit that are still competing on price. But Southwest move now tells us they're not going to compete on price and they're really not going to compete on service either. And so you end up with this business that feels like a monopoly because they treat their customers like dirt. Yes, prices are lower than they would have been otherwise. And clearly americans value that more than almost anything else. I think this is, you know, it's a great economic experiment because what it shows is that price is the determining factor, and we will take any indignity they throw at us in order to get another $8 off the fare.

Katherine Rampel
Yeah. So I think they're only competing on price effectively at this point. And I think airfares are actually remarkably cheap, particularly when you inflation adjust for whatever comparable tickets would have been a couple of decades ago. You know, I can fly one way from New York to California. You know, if I time it right for like $100, $120, that is insanely cheap when you think about, like, everything that goes into that flight and everything that goes into making that trip happen. So I think the issue is that's what consumers care about. They are sorting by price. If consumers cared about the other stuff, like how they are treated or, you know, I don't know how comfortable the seating options were, then airlines would respond to that. But they don't. This is what passengers pay attention to. I know so many people who say, like, never again on spirit airlines. And then it's like, okay, it's too cheap to pass up, so they do it again. And I think part of what has happened here is that, you know, there's been sort of a race to the bottom on pricing. Fares have gotten very cheap. Coupled with all of that, you have the fact that in, like, the first decade of this century, airlines overall were losing money. They lost a lot of money. And at some point, you know, around 1015 years ago, there was this movement within the industry towards what has been called capacity discipline. So that means essentially that they are flying much fuller flights. So rather than selling out only 80% of the flight, they're selling out close to 100% or sometimes over 100%, and they're overbooking. That cuts different ways. So you have fewer seats but a higher share of those seats actually being occupied. That's very good. For airlines, it's good for their profits if the planes are full. It's expensive to fly a half empty plane a few hours. It keeps their costs, and I think that's partly what enables them to keep offering cheaper and cheaper tickets. It's a little bit, you know, counterintuitive.

Charles Lane
You made me think of this, Kathryn. If you were to ask me personally how the experience of flying has changed the most since I started flying, I don't know, 40, 45 years ago, it would be that you never get on a half full plane anymore.

Katherine Rampel
Right.

Charles Lane
Back then. Back then, it was quite common to, like, be the, you know, be one of, like, 20 people on a flight that they just couldn't book, really, with the help of sophisticated computing and so on, they've really optimized what you call capacity discipline.

Katherine Rampel
Right. Yeah. So what happens is that means that that can make the tickets cheaper on average, but if something goes wrong, people get screwed. Right? Cause it's not like you can just hop on the next flight where they have a bunch of empty seats. That's why you get these big pile ups and delays where if your flight gets canceled, you might have to wait not just hours, but potentially days, as we have seen with this recent crowdstrike issue, because there just is not a lot of redundancy built into the system.

Mark Fisher
I spent 24 hours in the Seattle airport last winter for precisely that reason. They had nowhere to put us after a cancellation, and so it was a total mess. And I think that they actually do this sort of on purpose because I think there's a perverse joy that or pleasure of some sort, that a lot of passengers get from being treated like dirt because it makes them think they're getting a deal. If they were showering you with decent service and actually having customer service people at the airport during one of these giant pileups, then you would think, well, they're spending all this money on that. I could get a cheaper fair if I go to the airline that treats me like dirt.

Katherine Rampel
So I think there's seriously know anybody who likes being treated badly by airlines?

Mark Fisher
Jerry Seinfeld built an entire career out of airline jokes about exactly the stuff we're talking about.

Katherine Rampel
But that's because people hate it.

Mark Fisher
They hate it.

Charles Lane
Mark, hold on. Mark, do you think. Do you think one of the reasons they give so little legroom in sort of, you know, ordinary coach is. Is like a business strategy to get people to pay more for a little more legroom?

Mark Fisher
Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think they used to have customer service desks at the airport. They still have the desks. They just don't have any people there. And I think that is one way that they show, hey, look, we're economizing in order to give you these low fares.

Charles Lane
All right, we're going to turn to more constructive topics like what could be done to repair or improve the system. But first, we need to take a quick break.

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Charles Lane
Welcome back. I'm Charles Lane and this is impromptu, so the Biden administration is attempting to rein in airline problems. They have new rules that will require automatic refunds for canceled flights, more transparency around baggage fees, among other things. Do you think there are any rules and regulations the government is not enforcing that it could enforce that might make air travel better?

Katherine Rampel
You know, I'm basically on board with the things that you mentioned that they're already doing, that they are enforcing more transparency and they're helping customers get redress when things go wrong. And those are my biggest complaints with the airlines. But the idea of, like, requiring them to build more redundancy into the system so that when things go wrong, there are more options for passengers, I think that's the implicit solution to some of what we've been talking about. I think that could go very badly in the sense that, yes, when things go wrong, you might have better resolutions. But if you require more redundancy in the system, if you require, for example, airlines to run with more excess capacity that will probably, in the long term, push prices up. So a lot of the solutions that I hear bandied about or that are implicit in the things that people are complaining about, I think might have unintended consequences.

Mark Fisher
I agree that a lot of the fixes would drive prices up, but I think those prices would be more honest. And I talked to an economist at the University of Kentucky who spends his life studying dynamic pricing and queuing theory and stuff like that. And he said the only answer here is to re regulate, is to go back and establish certain floors and ceilings of pricing for airlines, and that this would help consumers and would actually help airlines because they'd be able to set clear prices that they could depend on and actually plan on. And yes, they'd be somewhat higher, but they would actually reflect the cost structure of the airlines, and they would actually reflect what many passengers are already paying once you add in all the absurd fees.

Charles Lane
So some people say part of the problem is just consolidation, right? I mean, there are five major airlines at this point, and they've taken over, merge with 42 others since 1960. That's even before deregulation. Is this an antitrust thing where we need to sort of break these companies up? Would that serve any purpose?

Katherine Rampel
I have very mixed feelings about this. There has been a lot of consolidation in airlines, but there have also been a lot of airlines that went broke, and it tells you it's a really hard business. Part of the problem is, while there have been new entrants, I recently flew an airline that I had never heard of called breeze. The newer entrants like that one basically can't get slots at the major airports. If I wanted to create Kathryn Rampel airlines, it would probably be very difficult for me to get a slot for a major route from LaGuardia or JFK or SFO or any of those other airlines. I only have the option, essentially, to go to some of the further away regional airports, which fewer people use, and that makes it more challenging. And there are probably different ways that you could, I don't know if democratize is the right word, but you could make it easier to have the legacy carriers compete over those slots in the high demand airports. That would help the new entrants gain more of a foothold. But I don't know necessarily that breaking up the airlines, absent evidence that I don't know that they're really abusing their pricing power for, you know, if they've, like, really monopolized one particular route, for example, I don't know that that's going to be super helpful because, again, like, prices are very, very low. You know, I think it's good that more Americans at lower income levels are able to fly.

Charles Lane
Let's get your takeaways. What's the big picture takeaway, Mark, after all this griping and a little bit.

Mark Fisher
Of constructive discussion, the nation's airways are like a bargain basement department store. It's a place where you can get a lot of cheap prices and you don't really know what you're getting, but it'll probably get you there eventually. And at the same time, it's a miserable experience. And whether it's intentionally miserable or accidentally miserable, it's miserable. And so I think a lot of people, a lot of Americans would be open to some basic structural changes, except they'd be so fearful that prices would go up that they'd say, no, treat me like dirt. That's what I really prefer.

Katherine Rampel
Katherine, again, I am skeptical that people like being treated badly. I guess what I would say is we have a very congested system. Again, no slots at the major airports. Airplanes are very full. It would be better for each of us individually if fewer people traveled. Right? Like we would all have a better experience if we were competing with fewer fellow passengers. But in aggregate, it's a good thing that a lot of people have access to inexpensive travel, even if that experience often leaves much to be desired.

Charles Lane
I confess I am an apologist for commercial aviation, and let me tell you why. A lot of people start the narrative with deregulation in 1970. I started with the invention of commercial aviation in the 1930s when it was prop planes at low altitude. Inside, it was noisy. You could hear the engine, it was freezing cold. The person sitting next to you was chain smoking with the encouragement of the airline, by the way, that's another thing that's changed in our lifetimes. There's no more ashtrays. And as you say, Mark, it was a miserable experience reserved only for the wealthy few who could afford it. Now, at least we have this fantastic jet service that serves everyone, not just a wealthy handful. It's extremely complex, capital intensive and everything else, and they pull it off with more safety than ever. I checked, and the last time a commercial airline went down in the United States was 15 years ago. So, in other words, 2009. Before that, it was 2001. The safety of this extraordinary, complex system is kind of mind boggling when you really think about it. So, yes, all of these annoyances are real. I repeat, I can't stand the boarding process. I hate it when somebody clonks me in the head with their overhead luggage. But when you consider how far we have come within a century, it is pretty staggering. When I think about the alternatives, I always come back to my experience flying in communist countries. I flew from Havana to Kamuguay, Cuba, once, and it was on an old Soviet Ilyushin jet. The plane was packed, and I looked up ahead of me in the cabin, and the fire suppression equipment was attached to the wall and included a fire extinguisher and an axe. An axe? Just in case we needed to chop our way out of a fire. And this axe was held on by a lightweight vinyl strap and one button to this wall. So off we go down the Runway, and sure enough, at the very last minute, the pilot has to abort the flight. And we come to this screeching halt. And I heard this loud noise, and I look back, and sure enough, the axe had, you know, gone all the way through the cabin and come to rest at the back with a loud clunk. So, yes, government regulation is necessary, but in countries where they do a little bit too much of it or they do it stupidly, it can create unintended consequences. That absurd, lengthy anecdote. We have to wrap this up. Thank you both for being a part of this week's episode of impromptu let's do it again soon.

Mark Fisher
Thanks, Chuck. It was a lot of fun. I want to go back on Aeroflot so I can get beer in a can with a glass made of glass and, yes, a goat and a dog in the seats next to me.

Katherine Rampel
Thanks, Chuck. Always a pleasure, even if airline travel is not.

Charles Lane
We've got one more thing before you go. Here's a quick word from our humor columnist, Alexandra Petry.

Alexandra Petry
Alexandra Petry here, folks. What's the deal with airplane travel? Sorry, I just always wanted to say that. Here's what I'll say about airplane. Airports are majestic hubs of wonder, and I love them. I say this as someone who once spent all of Christmas Eve in Chicago O'Hare with a toddler, hoping to get onto a flight to Salt Lake City using standby. Even then, I was like, well, no matter what, at least we're in an airport. My husband did not share this enthusiasm, but I stand by it. You can do everything worth doing in an airport. You can eat sushi. You can sit in an uncomfortable chair. You can visit something that describes itself as a bookstore and buy the secret. You can pay $13 for one water bottle. They even have fun places shaped like planes for your toddler to climb and run around the airports. Great. Its when you get on the plane that things get bad. If you want to feel better about the regular experience of airplane travel, try traveling with a toddler. Mine for instance. Seriously, take her. I'll fly separately and pretend not to know you. I will take any middle seat you offer me, even if the person in front of me is reclined into my lap and the person behind me is kicking me. This is gravy compared to traveling with a toddler. Usually when a baby on your plane starts to cry, you think, I wish that crying baby on the plane would stop. Somebody is parenting wrong. But when it's your baby and that baby starts to cry, not only do you have a better front seat to the crying than anyone else on the plane, but also everyone's glowering at you as though you're personally responsible for the baby crying and have just made it do so to spite everyone on board. Its no good explaining that actually, I want this to be happening even less than you do. They feel that you have the power to stop it, and yet they see that you are not making it stop and consequently they hate and resent you. The lack of legroom is the least of your problems with a toddler. Not only are you stuck in a middle seat with no legroom, but also someone sitting on your lap and screaming and spilling orange juice on you, and then youre sticky and wet and smell like orange juice for the remainder of the flight. And this is just traveling with one kid. I can't even imagine what it's like traveling with two or more. In my opinion, they should not just let those families board sooner. They should also just let the plane take off with them and give them the flight to themselves. That would be fairer for everyone involved.

Charles Lane
This episode was produced by Hadley Robinson and edited by Damir Marusic, Chris Sullentrop and Alison Michaels. It was mixed by Emma Munger and Chris Rukan designed our art. Special thanks to Millie Mitra and Travis Meyer. Thanks for listening to this episode of Impromptu. As always, let us know what you thought of the conversation and what you think we should talk about next. It probably won't be axes flying through airplanes. Email us@impromptuashpost.com. dot.

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