Latest Blog Post Pick-ups

The fine folks at The Japan Daily have picked up several of yesterday's blog posts for sharing with their readers.

They include:

To read The Japan Daily, go here.

Time To Rein In Greedy Airlines

Above, United Airlines jets at Los Angeles International Airport. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

There's an old saying:

You can't squeeze blood out of a turnip.

Well, if there's an industry on this planet that can find a way to "squeeze blood out of a turnip," it is the airline industry.

Today, in order to fly from Point A to Point B, travelers are being gouged and nickel & dimed to death with an assortment of fees and a ticket-pricing system that is abusive.

Ken Rafferty, in an opinion piece in The Japan Times, feels that it is "time to rein in greedy airlines."

He wrote (in part):

OSAKA – Economic reform is surely a good thing for any self-respecting country seeking to provide jobs and opportunities for its people. Deregulation is often essential to get rid of tedious and tired rules and bureaucratic hang-ups (and bypass bureaucrats who play petty tyrant). 

Capitalism — properly regulated — is a superior economic system to help achieve the best results from reforms. The market offers the acid test in helping to sort out sound and good ideas and projects from harebrained ones. 

Unfortunately, when governments put these elements together they don’t add up. That is happening today in aviation, with increasing concentration of power in the hands of greedy oligopolistic airlines. Hundreds of millions of airline passengers are facing unnecessary turbulence as airlines squeeze as much money as possible from them, and governments look away rather than see that passengers get a fair deal. 

Airlines have become adept at slicing and dicing, charging for checked luggage, sometimes for carryon luggage, for seat selection, for letting children sit next to their parents, for boarding early, food and drink, for blankets and pillows on some airlines, for any changes to flights. Airline ancillary revenue, so coyly called, came to almost $50 billion last year, and is rising with each money-grabbing new wheeze.

I am as big a supporter of the free market system as you can find, but even I can see when greed and abuse comes before customer service, common sense and decency. That is when I see the need for some regulation.

My first flight to Japan in 2001 only cost me $550 plus tax. Now that amount has skyrocketed due to the addition of the "fuel surcharge" which will often double (or more) the cost of a plane ticket. Some airlines (such as Singapore Air are reducing their "fuel surcharge" due to the worldwide drop in oil prices. I haven't yet heard of any announcement of lowering of the "fuel surcharge" by any U.S. airline. Surprise!

To read more, go here.

Latest Blog Post Pick-ups

The fine folks at The Japan Daily has picked up several blog posts from yesterday for sharing with their readers.

They include:

To read The Japan Daily, go here.

Singapore Air To Lower Fuel Surcharges

Above, a Singapore Air Airbus A380.

There's more good news for air travelers.

Japan Today reported:

SINGAPORE —Singapore Airlines will reduce its fuel surcharges for tickets issued on or after Feb 26. 

The new fuel surcharge levels, which represent a decrease of between U.S.$5 and $83 per sector, depending on the distance and class of travel, will apply to Singapore Airlines and SilkAir flights.

Singapore Airlines was the air carrier for the first G-TOUR to Japan in 2004. I found their service and food to be excellent. I would not hesitate flying to Japan with them again.

To read more, go here. 

Latest Blog Post Pick-ups

The good folks at The Japan Daily picked up several of yesterday's blog posts for sharing with their readers.

They include:

To read The Japan Daily, go here.

Some Airlines Drop Fuel Surcharges (Yours Isn't One of Them)

Above, oil prices have dropped and airlines have switched to fuel-efficient jets like the
Boeing 787, yet they still tack a "fuel surcharge" onto tickets. Why? Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Oil prices have plummeted in recent weeks, yet the airlines (for the most part) refuse to give up their "oil surcharge" fees.

Rick Seaney, CEO of FareCompare has an article at the ABC News website on why this is so.

He begins with:

When I began writing for ABC back in 2008, one of my first columns was about the "madness" of fuel surcharges, which were high but so was oil, hovering around $130 a barrel. 

Today, oil has plummeted to less than $48, but the insanity continues. An example is the price of a ticket on a major U.S. airline's New York-London route, $1,092. It includes lots of taxes and fees imposed by both governments, but the really interesting part is the rest of the ticket. 

Base fare: $403 

Fuel surcharge: $458 

Crazy, huh? A surcharge costing more than the ride. Worse, $458 is the same surcharge levied back in August when oil was nearly twice the price. So why are so many airlines still charging so much money? Because they can.

It is still best to shop around for the best airfare prices. I have settled on GatewayLAX for airline tickets to Japan (and I have used them for domestic flights, too) as I have obtained the best prices through them over the years. I've used Priceline.com and Travelocity in years past, but GatewayLAX consistently has them beat.

To read more, go here. 

Airlines: Those Fees and Fuel Surcharges Aren't Going Away

Above, a fuel-efficient United Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Recently, oil (and gasoline) prices have been dropping like rocks. I was wondering if airfares (along with the fuel surcharges) will be dropped or lowered likewise.

Apparently not, according to an article from AOL.com:

NEW YORK (AP) - Planes are full. Passengers clamor for amenities. Investors want a payout. New planes are on order. 

Those are all reasons the airlines likely won't be passing their recent savings on fuel along to fliers in the form of lower fares. 

In fact, fares are going higher. And those bag fees that airlines instituted in 2008 when fuel prices spiked aren't going away either.

It appears that shareholders will be getting dividends with the savings that the lower fuel costs have provided. So if you were counting on the airlines to help you to cheaply get to Japan or elsewhere, guess again.

The flying public is screwed again.

To read more, go here. 

Oil Spike Affects Air Fares

Persons planning to travel to Japan (or anywhere else) have to be watching the spiking oil prices with increasing alarm.

At this writing, gasoline in my neck-of-the-woods (Tarzana, California) is at $4.00/gallon for 87 octane at the lowest and $4.04/gallon for 87 octane at the highest. Relief is not in sight. Some oil market analysts think that oil will hit $150/barrel. It is currently around $105/barrel.

High oil and gasoline prices aren't the only things that should be of concern. As oil prices go up, so do airlines' fuel surcharges.

Right now, the lowest base airfare for Tokyo's Narita Airport from Los Angeles International Airport that I found for August was $880 on Korean Air. That is without adding in taxes, fees and the fuel surcharge.

Unless the oil market stablizes and fuel costs start dropping, the cost of air travel will force many would-be international travelers to spend their vacations at home or drive to someplace relatively nearby. Keep in mind that the base prices of airline tickets also rise as we get closer to the peak travel period of the year.

Thank goodness I went to Japan last December before the oil spikes began.

My best advice for potential travelers is to monitor the cost of airfares or, if you can, purchase your tickets now so you will lock in the price at today's amount.

Remember also, the dollar-yen exchange rate is at the worst it has been in years. It is currently anywhere between 81 to 83 yen per dollar exchanged.