American Airlines boosts fuel surcharge

...and 15 dollars for the "seat cleaning fee", 10 dollar "boarding greeting fee", 30 dollar "luggage handling fee", 30 dollar "window seat fee", 20 dollar "exit-row fee", 20 dollar "front of the plane fee", 35 dollar "toilet usage fee", 5 dollar "blanket fee", and so on....
When are the fed's going to lay down some regulations? This is getting really nuts. Stop the fees, enforce some sort of standardized seat pricing regulations, and maybe show your customer a little courtesy!

I agree with Mr. Smart. They should stop hiding the fact that the fee increases are solely related to fuel and fess up. However, let's face it, it is not enough and will continue to go up. I just wish they would be honest about it. On a different note, at least AAL is one of the "smart" airlines. AAL along with only now a handful of others are flying cloth seats instead of leather. Let's take Delta and US Airways for instance. Delta has just completed changing all of their seats over from cloth to leather and US Airways is in the process. Leather weighs at minimum 1 1/2 times more per seat place than cloth. If you are trying to save on fuel, does it make sense to put something heavier on the plane after they brag about removing blankets and pillows and olives from 1st class salads as a money and weight saver? Not to mention that leather costs more per seat place.
I don't think the feds need to be involved at all. The government has enough on its plate to screw up. I do think that the airlines should be honest and just tell the paying passengers that the fee increase is due to fuel and be done with it.

Perhaps they should look at all the free flying their employees do if they want to raise revenues. Even charging $100 per segment would help them out. They weigh more than my first bag does, believe me. Add to that the fact that their parents fly free, too, and that is a lot of opportunity cost for the airlines. I know their employees are going to gripe, but it is going to be better than some of the options.

When is the government going to stop giving subsidies to American Airlines? AA sucks..hard, and I don't see why tax dollars should go to an airline that charges you to take luggage on the damn airplane!?!WTF? Southwest and other SMARTER airlines have been just fine. American Airlines goes bankrupt every 5-10 years (which is where this is heading), and then the government bails them out.

If the Republicans believe in a free market economy, why won't they let the free market drown these losers?

Their planes are dirty and old, so are the flight crews, and they are usually more expensive than the other airlines...and that's before you tack on all the BS fees.

I made the mistake of flying AA to Rome last year, and after that nightmare I have vowed never to fly them again.

I say let them go bankrupt, and this time let's not bail them out.

Uhhh, gee, with all this penny pinching, firing employees, and smacking the travelers around, I wonder if the CEOs and high-paid company officers of these airlines are also going to set an example through decreasing their salaries by an equivalent percentage?

Is the traveling public just being used to subsidize these continuing perks during an emergency that's being shoved down our throats by the airline monopolies???