In economics it's called "price discrimination", the practice of charging different prices for the same, or similar, products to different people or groups of people. It's supply and demand at it's most base level. They'll charge what people are willing to pay.

Except that, as Alex rightly pointed out, people buy the cheapest ticket they see. Period. So if your ticket is $15 more than your competitor's, you're going to get fewer people on that plane and it won't matter that the ones that are on there are paying $15 more. They'd rather have 300 people, 50 of which pay $15 less because they didn't check a bag, than have only 200 people, each paying $15 more.

I disagree. The airlines are fiercely price competitive. They are engaged of a battle to the death at the moment. It is very difficult for any one of them to try to raise their prices on a particular route (see Alex's post above). There is no oligopoly here: there is definitely market driven pricing going on. Since the airlines cannot increase the published fare price, they have to find other ways of generating revenue.

Besides, you can't take a bus to Hawaii ;)

The only part I really have a problem with is when they don't tell you upfront. It sucks to get there, and then they tell you that you owe them money for luggage, taxes, port fees, whatever.

We'll see how it's handled. I know that in the past, the "you'll be charged for checking a 2nd bag" disclaimers were fairly noticeable at time of purchase on the various travel sites. Not necessarily right up front, but any cursory reading of the summary of charges let you know what was up. If this is handled the same way, then I have no problem with it. I'm sure people will miss it and get pissed, but what more can they do?

We'll see how this works. One of the worst parts of air travel for me is waiting in line at the check-in desk. I've avoided this for years by utilizing all of the expedited check-in options made available to me. If I have to go up to a desk and wait while a clerk charges me for <$20 in surcharges, I'll be really annoyed. If I can pay at home, no problem.

I know it is just a matter of personal travel style but other than having to take off my shoes air travel has only become easier for me over the years rather than more annoying.

I don't care if they show me a movie. I don't care if they feed me. I never check bags and my carry on, regardless of length of trip is always a gym bag with a separate camera bag.

So, a la carte pricing combined with electronic check in and printing boarding passes at home all make flying much more convenient to me than it was 15 years ago. Heck, even security isn't that big of a deal, despite all of the complaining I have never had to stand in line at security for more than 20 minutes since 9/11, the worst security line remains in 1994 when it took almost an hour to get through at SeaTac. Even when I get pulled for special screening (which happens regularly since we're fans of last minute travel and booking within 48 hours of flight gets you the dreaded SSSSSSSSS boarding pass) it is quick enough for my needs.

But we'll see how spoiled I get. For our two week France trip this fall we're flying business class on Virgin Atlantic (but I'll still only have a gym bag and a camera bag with me).

I know that from a marketing standpoint it makes sense to have the prices low and all services be add-on. It still bugs me. I just want to know - up-front - how much it will cost to get me from point A to point B, and with my stuff. It's becoming like the phone company - they tell you a rate, and then your bill comes with all these mysterious fees that were never mentioned.

Oh, that's for sure. And honestly, the airlines would rather it be that way too. The last thing they want is more visibility into how much these things actually cost them because it means less flexibility to increase their margin without people noticing. But there's just no viable choice anymore.

Agreed. I ideally, they'll integrate the option into the check-in process and let you pay when you check in, whether it's online or at the self-serve kiosks in the airport.

At least with United, when checking in online or at the kiosks there is already the ability to check luggage as well as the ability to handle payment for flight upgrades so I don't see why they wouldn't be able to handle accepting payments for checked bags (if they wanted to).

Continental has already said they won't be matching this move. If the other non-budget airlines do the same I expect American will back down.