Will Airlines and Passengers Call a Truce?

In the recent weeks of sof winter storms across the country, airlines have been giving their customers a chance to take advantage of the ability to chance their itineraries ahead of the bad weather, a waiver that is rare in air travel; a service from the airlines without paying for it. In the last 18 months, the idea of a plane ticket has been transformed from an all-inclusive purchase to a pay-as-you-go plan, creating a poor relationship between airlines and customers.

Airlines say their inability to make money, and consumers' resistance to higher ticket prices, as their reason for thinking up new ways to make customers pay extra. The International Air Transport Association stated that the airlines had lost $55 billion in the last decade.

Robin Hayes, an executive vice president and chief commercial officer at JetBlue Airways had to say this about the charges, "on the whole, for the last 10 years, the industry has done a really rotten job of looking after passengers."

Mark Bergsrud, the senior vice president for marketing at Continental Airlines believes that passengers who are having having the toughest time accepting the changes are those who fly only a few times a year. While business travelers are having an easier time in part due to the miles they are earn that allow an exemption from many of the charges.