View Full Version : Best seat in the airplane.
Well, mine's 1A , but not according to this report, which says the majority of passengers prefer 6A. Puzzling.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/9223155/Perfect--flight-seat-pinpointed.html
Wasn't that the coveted seat on Concord Tonish? To have a boarding card for seat 1A on flight BA 001?
florida4sun
26-04-2012, 11:31
I would not even know where to start too figure out 'the best seat'. Nowadays where planes aren't full I go to the back which usually secures a whole row to sleep on.
Katys Grandad
26-04-2012, 11:54
The 'study' seems to have been undertaken purely to provide the airlines with details of passenger seat preferences so they can make sure they charge extra for them. Not so long ago all the seats were the same price (i.e. free) but now it's another lucrative form of revenue that is obviously being fully exploited.
I can't blame them for doing it but for the paying passenger it's another thing contributing to the steady and significant rise in fares over the last few years.
The 'study' seems to have been undertaken purely to provide the airlines with details of passenger seat preferences so they can make sure they charge extra for them. Not so long ago all the seats were the same price (i.e. free) but now it's another lucrative form of revenue that is obviously being fully exploited.
I can't blame them for doing it but for the paying passenger it's another thing contributing to the steady and significant rise in fares over the last few years.
It is taxes raising the fares 99% of the time.
Lynne
Katys Grandad
26-04-2012, 14:09
It is taxes raising the fares 99% of the time.
Lynne
While taxes have contributed to rises in the fares, fuel and surcharges are the main reason. However, the airlines now make a lot of money out of theses incidentals like seat selection and baggage. BA in particular have been exploiting them for a couple of years now.
While taxes have contributed to rises in the fares, fuel and surcharges are the main reason. However, the airlines now make a lot of money out of theses incidentals like seat selection and baggage. BA in particular have been exploiting them for a couple of years now.
The airlines need every penny they can get and when I said taxes I did mean everything.
Lynne
canarypam
27-04-2012, 07:03
I agree Lynne when you see the cost of the flight and separate the taxes out there's not much left for the airline.
Katys Grandad
27-04-2012, 07:17
The low cost carriers get a (sometimes) well deserved bad press for the way they add extras to their base fares but the so-called full service airlines are catching them up rapidly in that area.
I'm not at all anti BA and have flown with them a number of times this year already but they have recently barred all phone calls to other than their premium lines, have booking fees on both online and phone bookings, charge for early seat selection (and even more for exit row seats) and have a free baggage allowance less than half what it was a couple of years ago. Try booking a Club fare to the US and they'll take well over £2,000 each from you and if you want to pre-book seats to ensure your group are together that'll cost £60 per seat in each direction - for a family of 4 it means forking out another £480. Sadly, other airlines are going the same way.
I confidently predict that before long all but a few seats that nobody wants will carry an additional charge for pre-booking. In fact, we're not that far away from there now.
When the flight cost does not include baggage etc. that suits us fine. We flew with Thomson 3 times last year all on late deals we paid on average £350 per ticket it was an extra £40 (this has gone up to £50 this year) for 20k of baggage, however as we own our own villa we have everything we need over there so did not have to pay for baggage we did not need. If the price is seperated out I think this is a fairer way of doing it, but if they are adding them on to make extra proft then this is a rip off. when we flew with BA in October the flight was £361 when we checked the pricing £70 was the flight cost and the rest was taxes!
Katys Grandad
27-04-2012, 09:36
I think there's a fundamental misunderstanding here. For sure, the actual TAXES go to HM Revenue but the fuel surcharges are imposed and retained by the airline at their discretion. It simply isn't true that the airline has to hand over all but £70 of a £361 fare. No airline could possibly operate for long on those rates.
The real rip off is the huge difference between individual airlines. It becomes very apparent when you look at a mileage redemption ticket. If you fly from Orlando to London on American Airlines you'll pay £3.20 in taxes and charges on top of the 'miles'. For the same journey on the same day on BA you will be charged £150.70 - around 50 times more. There is no UK tax on either journey so there is no reason why the payment should be so massively different other than the way the individual airline chooses to apply the surcharges.
Go figure!
I think there's a fundamental misunderstanding here. For sure, the actual TAXES go to HM Revenue but the fuel surcharges are imposed and retained by the airline at their discretion. It simply isn't true that the airline has to hand over all but £70 of a £361 fare. No airline could possibly operate for long on those rates.
The real rip off is the huge difference between individual airlines. It becomes very apparent when you look at a mileage redemption ticket. If you fly from Orlando to London on American Airlines you'll pay £3.20 in taxes and charges on top of the 'miles'. For the same journey on the same day on BA you will be charged £150.70 - around 50 times more. There is no UK tax on either journey so there is no reason why the payment should be so massively different other than the way the individual airline chooses to apply the surcharges.
Go figure!
Now that is an eye opener, it seems not to matter what we buy here in Britain we always seem to get ripped off.