August 6, 2024
Fly the Friendly Skies?
By far, the most pleasant way to start a cycle trip is to pack the bike and to just roll off from home. No need to transport the bikes and gear somewhere, no friends to wake up at the wrong time to give you a lift somewhere, and especially, no airlines to deal with. Of course, while you might start your career with some trips like that, eventually you have to look farther afield for your starting point. Something involving a car or van may come into play then, but sooner or later to carry on cycling you will fall into the waiting arms of the airlines.
I don't know quite why or when the carriers decided that their role was not so much to provide a sensible transportation service, but more to play a game, where the object is to shake every possible penny from the pockets of the would be travellers. And after the first shakedown, to turn the victims upside down and have one last go at selling them a few more overpriced extras.
I have of course ranted about this in previous blogs, but the fact remains that for many (or most) of us, the first sport we encounter when starting a sporting trip is to keep a grim grip on the wallet as we go in the ring with the airlines, and their buddies the "cheap o" booking platforms. It's something I really dread, and it's kind of a huge part of long distance cycling, and cycling at a distance.
All this hit me double, as we had to abandon and then rebook our flight out from more or less Vancouver, to Paris. The double hit was that I had not yet had time to lose or forget the cost of our original booked flights - booking made not very long ago. And with the re-booking, I wrote down the flights and costs yesterday but could not yet be certain about the needed times, so I came back today to finalize the deal. As of yesterday, Westjet had more than doubled the price of our flight - whose number is WS10 - a routine route from Vancouver to Paris, and as of today in at least one variant of how we could go from our island, they tripled it.
Before I show some of the boring details, let's see if we can develop some justification for what (spoiler alert) I see as simple greed and price gouging. Let's start with something easy, like carry on baggage, though my focus today is actually on the general ticket price. To put the airline in the best light, we would say that they offer the customer the lowest possible price, not forcing them to automatically buy anything they don't need. So if you don't need carry on, don't buy it, and be happy that your fare was lower. I mean, that's what we call freedom. Nobody is forcing you to buy or do anything! Similarly (changing industries for a moment) if you don't like the price of bread, don't buy it - you are perfectly free to starve any time you like! (An oh, bonus, if enough people starve then the reduced demand will eventually lower the price of bread.)
Back to carry-on, most every long distance traveler needs spare clothes, meds, phone charger, etc. etc., and cyclists need tools, panniers, etc. etc. The lower price illusion for no carry on is more a joke than an option!
Not to belabor this or any of the related points anyone who travels knows so well, let's have a peek at a few of my computer screens from yesterday. In looking at them, we bear in mind that our original price for WS10 the flight that drops us in to CDG at 12:30, was $480 each.
$1142.67 is a 238% increase. So that's the first thing on screen below. Next, if you want the chance to change or cancel, maybe with a fee, you can pay $2492.67, that's a 218% increase over the now cheap seeming $1142. Is the airline kidding? Not at all, in fact, they have these necessary costs figured out to the penny - although strangely all the prices on screen end in .67?
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Another thing to note from the above screen - business class is almost 7 times more costly than economy. Business people can not drink quite that much champagne, so these extra dollars are clearly because they are not paying with their own money, but rather with business revenues - such as what you are contributing with that overpriced bread. The $7,000 is also a tax deduction, so you will see it in increased taxes paid by working people. What a cheery computer screen that is!
Ah yes, here is another one. It shows an 84% increase to fly on the Saturday, vs. Wednesday. Of course the amount of jet fuel needed is the same, it'sjust that apparently more people want to fly on Saturday than Wednesday. So those with that desire, and who have the financial clout, bid up the price. It's a beauty of capitalism, and spares us the ugliness of things like long queues. Gotta love it. And there is a bizarre logic - anyone who possibly can and is reasonably prudent with money, will fly on the Wednesday.
Even this beautiful system can occasionally show some strange anomalies. I think this one is more due to some inexperienced programmers, rather than to comparative economic systems. On the screen below, we see Westjet offering their premium package, for the 14:30 departure, that still just gets you to CDG at 12;30, for substantially less than their "economy" offering, which is inferior in every respect ($740.67 vs $1033.67). Maybe that programmer is just trying to see if I am still awake, after analysing all this cuckoo pricing?
Anyway, I will be so glad to just be out on the open road, with little to think about except whether that "Route Barrée" is true, or also bullshit!
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