So what needs to be done on regulating airlines?

[Hawkeye-X]

Do we need to nationalize the airlines and remove insipid fees? First class/business class should be tossed out for equality. I always look at them with disdain when I board my flight, and wonder wtf do they deserve luxuries? Why not the rest of us who has to deal with cramped seats and useless crap?

I think its time to do away with stupid airlines and work on something that is more reasonable.. Oh like high speed bullet trains.

Infrastructure as we stand are collapsing and we need to fix it.

[LisaM]

1. I only fly three or four times a year

some of those business travellers fly about ten or twenty times as much. I don't begrudge them their comfortable seats.

I do like the idea of beefing up the train system. It's LONG overdue.

[baldguy]

2. Stop treating them like buses.

Restrict the takeoff/landing slots available at each airport - and charge them a reasonable fee to use them.

Use the revenues from those fees to expand & modernize the passenger rail system.

[babylonsister]

3. No. What we NEED to do is get the price of fuel down before

they all go broke or the price of tickets will be so outrageous no one but the wealthy will be able to afford them. As it is, loads of people are losing their jobs. I'm more worried about this aspect of the airlnes at the moment.

[Youphemism]

4. You're forgetting there are people with health issues who need first class...

The cattle car factor gets worse and worse. There are people with bad backs, bad circulation, people who travel a lot...

As air travel gets worse, first class gets more important, not less.

(I fly coach, but I plan someday to be rich and unhealthy.)

[bobw999]

5. One of the many reasons im voting for Obama...

...is because McCain wants to kill Amtrak and offers no rail solutions. Almost everyone in the railroad community hates McCain and want Obama.

[Occam Bandage]

6. Fees and prices will continue to go up as fuel costs do. Already they're operating at a loss.

First class/business class get those luxuries because they pay for them. Be glad they do; airlines make their best income in the front of the plane, and their prices would have to go up across the board if they got rid of first class.

[high density]

7. What's wrong with first and business class?

Most of those people are frequent fliers who are sitting up there on upgrades anyway. Anybody with a clean shirt, pants, and shoes can buy those seats. Should we also throw out all new vehicles above the Chevy Aveo for equality?

The biggest current problem is that there needs to be an honest, uniform presentation of the fees involved to book a flight. The fees for luggage, selecting a seat, etc are getting outrageous and no casual flier can keep track of all of the different polices at the different carriers.

[deadmessengers]

12. Beat me to it

Should we also throw out all new vehicles above the Chevy Aveo for equality?

I was going to post this analogy in my post below, until I read that someone else beat me to it.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

8. don't leave the gate until the plane is actually going somewhere!

hell, don't board the plane until your actually going somewhere.

[workinclasszero]

9. The price of JP4 is gonna kill the airlines

Now most are charging for first and second checked bags and still its not enough.

After summer travel season is over many airlines plan on cutting flights and parking lots of aircraft.

People are going to be shocked when they discover they will have to drive maybe hundreds of miles to the nearest large airport to get on a totally packed flight at a time that works for the airline, not them.

And don't even think about being late, there will be twenty people in line for your seat!

If the price of fuel doesn't come way down I believe air travel will go back to being only for the rich and business people.

[sailor65]

10. Not really

since they don't use it anymore :-)

[deadmessengers]

11. Question answered

I always look at them with disdain when I board my flight, and wonder wtf do they deserve luxuries?

People flying business class don't *deserve* luxury. They have, on the other hand, paid out the wazoo for it - and subsidized your discount ticket in the process. Typical business/first class tickets are between 2 and 10 times the price of economy seats, making them highly profitable clients, enabling the airlines to sell deeply-discounted seats as a loss leader.

[TahitiNut]

13. Require adult, human-sized accommodations!

The seating space in first class should be the standard! Fuck the other perks ... if nothing else, SAFETY should require such accommodations.

If an entire NFL football team can't be seated comfortably, occupying all the adjoining seats, then the seating should be scrapped.

[AllentownJake]

14. Restore some of the Regs before Reagan deregulated?

Seriously did any airlines go bankrupt before the 80s?

I'm all for competition however those companies had obligations like Pensions.

Not sure what the regs were but it seems to me that they all are trying to undercut each other on price now for Expedia and Travelocity and the only way they can try to make it up is with BS fees for stuff that used to be free.

[remember2000forever]

16. Yup! A Solid Middle Class Employee Base, Going Down The Tubes.

My Pension for 23 years at Pan Am? $162.00 A Month!

[On the Road]

15. Why on Earth Would You Think Nationalizing the Airlines

would solve any problems? They would become one big department of motor vehicles.

The problem with airlines is that they provide a commodity service with very thin profit margins that people purchase mostly based on price. As a result, airlines often lose money and are heavily in debt. On top of that, there is an enormous spike in one of their biggest costs.

It is possible to write regulations to prohibit any of these nickle-and-dime charges: requiring two pieces of free checked luggage or a free can of soda. Those might push the price up a little, but it would create a level playing field.

It didn't used to be this way. Airline prices used to be regulated and filed with the Civil Aeronautics Board. Jimmy Carter eliminated that agency to create unfettered competition. And the results have been much better for the consumer than the industry. Adjusted for inflation, prices were much higher in the late 70s.

There are all kinds of things that can be considered, but ultimately a lot of these new policies are expressions of desperation by companies that have a very real risk of going out of business.

[wvbygod]

17. Nationalized anything

As long as things don't wind up like your typical crass and stoic government insults like
the typical DMV and other cold hearted service units. If the focus can be on satisfying the customer
and performing the task at hand rather than the smug assistance we get from other government services.

Anytime I have to kneel down and renew a license, pay a fee, get assistance or any other act
that puts me at the mercy of those that feel entitled to keeping their job no matter how they
treat me, I want to see some change in leadership. Run it like the customer is #1 and I will agree.