Yeah, all these is really eating my craw. I actually posted a bit of a rant about it on my Travelite blog.

Lately hubby and I have noticed the trend (as we've been flying a lot this year) of airlines assigning us seats far apart when tickets are purchased, then offering us the option of sitting together for a fee of $50 each. :rolleyes:

And I love Southwest -- I've always had great service from them even though it's called "no frills."

Ohh this is something I'm not familiar with. Did you buy tickets directly from the airlines? Did you use a third-party vendor like Expedia? Do both you and your husband have frequent flier numbers for those airlines? How far before the flights did you purchase your tickets? Did you have the option to select seats at the time of purchase? Which airlines charged you for changing seats?!?!?!?

lizzie: many airlines allow you to request your seat assignments at the time of purchase. (unless the flight is getting full and they think they might overbook it) See if they charge extra up front

Ryanair in Europe wants to teach you how travel light with one hand luggage thats it . Their first checked bag is like 10euros or something .

Jet Blue to charge $7 for new blanket and pillow that you can take with.

a la cart done right.

I don't mind this one at all. It's an item you can take with you, that is new and can be reused. It's also sanitary, and since I never use them, is one less thing I have to stash somewhere.

And one more thing making waste.

I keep looking at this thread wondering when the title will be fixed.

Wish I could quickly find the commercial... I believe it's from Emirates Airlines, though possibly Saudi. (Probably Emirates, since they sponsored the Breeder's Cup, and I think that's what was on when I caught it.)... but it was beautiful, and reminded me of the idea that flying used to be such a luxury.

It is a luxury airline, and expensive as sh*t, but I really wanted to fly on it. Oh, that travel could be so chic...

Damn it!

Continental to charge $15 for 1st checked bag

I just booked our intra-Europe flights when we're in Europe. For EasyJet they charge you for any checked bags they just make it less obvious. The fee was included in the initial price but on one of the confirmation pages there was a box hidden among the various travel insurance and would I like to buy a house while in Europe and look at these fine Rolex-esque watches we're selling that let me set the number of checked bags to 0 and knocked 18 pounds off the the price.

I'm more annoyed by Virgin's carry on policy. You get one bag per person. Not a bag and a purse or a bag and a camera bag or a bag and a computer bag. One bag. And it can't weight more than 13 pounds. My "mandatory" electronic gear is about 4 pounds total, the gag is a pound itself. So I get about 8 pounds of clothes for a two week trip.

Not a huge problem but I can't figure out why the weight matters much so long as it is within the size limit (and Lani investigated, apparently they don't always weigh your carry on but if they do they are strict about the limit).