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5 (sometimes surprising) ways flying affects your body
Gus Ruballo You land. Your throat feels like sandpaper. Your head is heavy. Your eyes sting. You've been sitting still for eight hours… so why does your body feel like it just ran a marathon? Most travelers accept this as the price of flying. But there's nothing inevitable about it. These symptoms have specific, well-documented causes — and understanding them is the first step to actually doing something about them. Here are five things flying is doing to your body right now. Some I´ll bet…
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Last week my group the Consumer Travel Alliance together with ASTA and the Business Travel Coalition launched a Mad as Hell about Hidden Fees petition. You can find it at www.madashellabouthiddenfees.com. I explain the effort on ConsumerTraveler.com at http://snipr.com/12vhdr.
This is the first time in over a decade that the DOT is changing a regulation regarding airline ticketing and what passengers should know. For consumers this is a perfect storm opportunity to mandate that airlines tell all travel agents and online travel agencies the full price of airline travel.
Please pass along the word. If you would like any prepared ads for this effort, please contact me directly at leocha@consumertraveler.com.
Here, on this site, how to avoid carry-on baggage fees.
My flying rant is now up on the Flightster blog in case anyone is interested.
http://www.flightster.com
This is great if you're flying from Beijing or Seoul, but would you book seats on a discount airline on a long or overnight flight to Japan?
"Airline fees, once merely irritating, have blossomed into a major source of airline profits and a growing headache for travelers.
Passengers have grudgingly paid for checked baggage, ticket changes and onboard meals. But fees to board early, access a wireless Internet connection in-flight, or fly on standby have emerged recently. And... 'We've not even begun to touch the bottom of the barrel with airline service fees,' said Stuart Klaskin, a Miami-based airline consultant.
'It's a successful formula for restoring airlines to profitability,' said George Hobica, founder of Airfarewatchdog.com. 'If they hadn't done it, we would have had fewer airlines....'
Kate Hanni, founder of the airline passenger organization flyersrights.org wants the DOT to issue a rule requiring airlines to publish on their Web sites a comprehensive fee guide that is accessible to consumers before they enter the personal information required to purchase a ticket.
'At least then you'll be able to compare airlines,' she said....
'Any fee that the consumer doesn't revolt over is going to stay, [Michael] Boyd [of the Boyd Group] said."
But will consumers revolt?
Max, here's the problem with the airlines, especially the American legacy carriers: They've fired thousands of staffers, downsized the peanuts, created fees for everything from carry-on bags to Coca-Cola, and crammed every seat, yet they're still a lousy investment. They don't dare treat us better without fomenting a revolt among the shareholders.
Moreover, they don't have to. They've learned that when we have to get from A to B, we have to get from A to B.
So it still comes down to this: How much more $ are we willing to spend to get a more civilized flight experience?
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