What’s wrong is providing a floor that’s beneath human dignity.

Imagine if they charged extra for seat belts, or getting help evacuating after a crash. Some people would be willing to take the extra risk in exchange for paying less. You let more people access air travel. People who value safety can pay extra for more of it. There would be rightful outrage.

Something like lounge access is firmly in the realm of reasonable price discrimination. Charge extra, certainly! But something like charging extra to sit with your travel companions is bullshit. That sort of thing should be strongly rejected.

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lotsofpulp an hour ago | parent [-]

>Imagine if they charged extra for seat belts, or getting help evacuating after a crash.

Why? This isn't happening, and I can't figure out how it is productive to make up a scenario.

>But something like charging extra to sit with your travel companions is bullshit. That sort of thing should be strongly rejected.

Suppose a plane has seats in groups of 3s, and everyone on the plane is in a group of even number of people. Obviously, seating everyone together is impossible. As a seller, why is it "bullshit" to give the people that do not get to sit with their companion a lower price?

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ceejayoz an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Ryanair threatened to make people pay for toilet usage.

Airlines are looking at standing seats (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_seat), which would absolutely impact evacuation safety (mainly a concern of bandwidth through the aisle/doors) to save some ticket costs.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2009/mar/05/ryanair-toi...

> Obviously, seating everyone together is impossible.

We manage it just fine at the movie theater, at sports stadiums, etc.

Sometimes you're one row behind. Sometimes the last person to book is in a weird spot. But largely, if you want to sit with your spouse, you'll be able to.

At a certain point, the bean counters have to be told no.

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lotsofpulp an hour ago | parent [-]

Movie theaters do charge to reserve seats now (at least by me), and sports stadiums have done that forever, as far as I know.

>Ryanair threatened to make people pay for toilet usage.

Ryanair says a lot of crap as part of their advertising strategy. It is ragebait/clickbait/etc. Eitherway, it's on the government to enforce basic standards.

>At a certain point, the bean counters have to be told no.

The government should ensure minimum standards (and sufficient competition in the market). Everything else, let the customers decide what they want or do not want to pay for.

	▲	ceejayoz an hour ago \| parent [-]
		> Movie theaters do charge to reserve seats now… "Other people are also enshittifying" is not the argument you think it to be. (It's not the case in my area, incidentally.) You asserted it couldn't be done. I quote: > Obviously, seating everyone together is impossible.

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wat10000 an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

The only reason my hypothetical doesn’t happen is because it’s literally illegal. Your scenario doesn’t happen because solo travelers exist and you don’t get an entire plane full of pairs.