Airline Rules Cost Consumers Money

Posted by Barbara Rogers Aug 17, 2007

Think how simple it would be if you could just buy a ticket from point A to point B and fly there. But no, you have to buy a ticket back again, even though you are getting on a ship that sails back to your point of origin. If you don’t buy the round-trip ticket, you have to pay more than its cost for a one-way ticket. You actually pay more not to return. So you say “OK, I’ll buy the round-trip ticket and just throw away the second half.” Just be sure you don’t say it to the ticket agent, or they won’t sell it to you. As though it were their business what you do with it after you pay for it.

And, after you’ve bought a round-trip ticket if you discover that your friends are driving, can you ride with them and fly back on the ticket you just bought? No. If you don’t use the first – or any segment – of the ticket, the rest of it is automatically canceled. Even though you paid for it.

If you buy a ticket to the Caribbean and can’t use it, can you give it to a relative? No. It can only be used by the person named on the ticket. And worse yet, if the ticket agent spells your name wrong, can you use the ticket? Not without paying a substantial fee.

Why do airlines have these rules? To make more money. Are they fair? Of course not. Do they make sense? No. Does the grocery store tell you that if you buy mayonnaise you can only use it on sandwiches? Or that if you buy mayo you need to buy a loaf of bread, too? Or that if you drop the first spoonful on the floor the rest of the jar will disappear?

Maybe it’s time for consumers to object – and to tell airlines that they’d rather fly a carrier that doesn’t have such silly rules. Southwest and JetBlue, for example, are happy to sell you a one-way ticket, or any combination of tickets for the routing of your choice. Perhaps it’s time for consumers to let airlines know that they don’t accept these senseless rules designed to cheat flyers and make bigger profits for the airlines.