It's no secret that the airline industry is paring down these days.
And who isn't? Dude, gas is, like, four bucks a gallon here in the Middle Of Nowhere, Illinois. I can only imagine what it costs to fill up that jet plane.
But ditching the in-flight entertainment system? Not cool. Not cool at all.
Tripso broke the story, and the Washington Business Journal confirmed it: US Airways will eliminate the in-flight movies on some domestic flights, saving the company nearly $10 million annually.
The Journal also states that the airline intends to begin charging for coffee and soda.
I get that times are tight and everyone needs to cut back—I certainly am. I know that the industry's numbers are down to almost where they were just post-9/11.
But really?
Cutting all the small services passengers have come to expect seems like a miscalculation. It's already hard enough to get from here to there in the air—delays, cancellations and general poor customer service abounds. I can attest to this personally, since I took at least four round-trip flights with my daughter last year.
Passengers can expect to be treated as if the airline is doing them a favor by getting them to and from their destinations. And if I'm not mistaken, we gave them a pretty big wad of cash to do so.
I'm all for cutting costs when it benefits both the carrier and the customer. But what's next? Pay toilets?
I guess I better stock up on quarters. And invest in a portable DVD player.
