{"id":7851,"date":"2020-03-13T14:41:27","date_gmt":"2020-03-13T20:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/?p=7851"},"modified":"2020-03-13T14:41:27","modified_gmt":"2020-03-13T20:41:27","slug":"the-sun-sets-on-the-airline-fee-splurge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/?p=7851","title":{"rendered":"The Sun Sets on the Airline Fee Splurge?"},"content":{"rendered":"

“That will be $25.00.”<\/p>\n

I’ve been blessed to travel extensively. Events, weather and other issues may arise and require changes. For decades, one could often make a call or an in person request and a flight or schedule update was made.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The $25.00 fee for me, was the beginning of the end. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Up until a few weeks ago, airlines seemed to master fees for everything from a boarding pass, assigned seats to schedule and price changes and of course additional fees for frequent flyer tickets. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That $25.00 moment remains etched in my memory. Delta’s customer service agent delivered it quickly and professionally. She responded to my request for waiver with “those fees pay my bonus”. I marveled at the organizational skills required to make the fees for everything business model<\/em> stick.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Yet, I wondered when the airline fee house of cards might crumble<\/strong>. The organizational, training and software complexity required to support fees for everything is substantial. Increasingly cramped planes have further reduced the air travel allure.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Today, zoom’s (video communication app) market capitalization is $29.7B, exceeding Delta’s 24.55B, United’s $10.32B and Southwest’s $21.35B.<\/p>\n

There is no substitute for face to face meetings, imho. That said, augmenting experiences and relationships with FaceTime, zoom, amuz<\/a> and other digital services is here to stay. <\/p>\n

Perhaps we may arrive at a more citizen friendly balance between fees for everything air travel and pure digital services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“That will be $25.00.” I’ve been blessed to travel extensively. Events, weather and other issues may arise and require changes. For decades, one could often make a call or an in person request and a flight or schedule update was made. The $25.00 fee for me, was the beginning of the end. Up until a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7851"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7851"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7852,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7851\/revisions\/7852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}