Airlines and Travel companies

Introduction

In this articale we will examine the deals the Airlines and Travel companies are offering you in general. Notice that I do not use any numbers or statistics. Just purely deductive analysis. This is because the numbers can be used to substantiate or unsubstatatiate just about anything. But simple anylysis, although limited in some cases can provide some very powerful alternative action plan to our advantage.

The Offer

The idea is to offer you free travel without really costing them anything but getting something in exchange. You can see that we all try to do that. We try to get something for nothing or get something more for something less that we can give up. In the case of airlinnes somebody saw that just about all flights are leaving with some empty seats. So why not offer these to somebody for nothing if they travel so much for cash. This will encourage extra travel for cash without really sacrificing anything. So it looke like a win-win situation. They get more travel and more upfront money for ginving away some travel for free. But then it began to look like that they were giving up too much and not getting much back in generated revenue via the free travel scheme. So they began to fine tune it. You see the fundamental hypothesis is to give up something but get more in exchange. The result now is that instead of one mileage level for free travel in the US, they have a graduated scale for miles needed to travel to diffrent cities. But remember this fine tuning process will continue and they will keep looking at their numbers and will keep reducing the offerings until they are getting more (way more) than they are giving. No matter what shape the new offerings take, the all pervading fact is going to be get more from you than they give you. So if you think they are doing you a favor that is far- fetched. Of course, nowadays they are super polite (the cuastomer service and it does not cost them anything, just some training for their employees) but when the time comes for charging you, they are polite but firm on the what they are going to give you. That is universal and is not going to change and in fact will get worse. More customer service excellence but higher prices.  So what do you do? I do not know about you, but this is what I do and it is working well for me.

1.     The airlines prices are now so high they do not even make any sense. Travel by air only when you have to. I travel by car as much as possible. This gives you freedom of travel and control that you lose when going by air. Do not sigh up forn any new frequent travel plans. They are now so resticted and the benfits are so minor that it is a hassle to deal with their promoting emails. If you have any old memberships, just keep them but remember do not get upset when you see their restrictive practices. Unfortunately they are following the sme principle of greed that we follow also. So if they want to be greedy, so will we be also. This of course is not good for the business as a whole but then that is the way it is. You have to make yourself comfortable and not them. It is very simple. They are not giving up anything for nothing. So you should not either.

2.     Remember they use to take your bags for free? But now they do not. This is an example of not giving anything for nothing. They are telling me that they canot afford to handle baggage for free. How did they handle it before? What is behind this. There can be sevceral resaons for this.

Did their taxes (fedral, state and local) go up? I do not know. Like I said I have no numbers. I am using purely deductiiove anlysis. But here is what I can argue. If the taxes were the cause of this then they would be curtailing operations or increasing prices. That would be the normal channel to raise funds if the taxes have gone up. The businesses simly pass the taxes to their customers. I don t think taxes were the cause of this baggae charge. From my accounting experience I know that different busines units and also government units have actaully staff on their payrall that investigates the new charges that can be levied and passed on and they also investigate as to how to increase the existing tax rates and find new taxes and fees. The baggage handling fees are only the tip of the iceberg. There are a whole lot of businesses that are now introducing all kinds of fees and charges such as banking and insurance companies. This will continue to get worse. There is something you can do such as tavel with no bag at all or ship your bag ahead by other means. Avoid the fees by trying to stay away form the services that cause fees. 

I do not think the taxes have gone up on the airlines industry but it is possible that their rate of return was decreasing because of higher fuel prices. But again that should result in higher ticket prices (and the ticket prices are way higher) and not baggage fees. 

It is possible that their internal operational costs have gone up. But that does not make any sense as witness their ads boasting complete revamping and stream lining of their operations and the talk of being lean and mean. That is all for your consumption. But when it comes to passing that technoclogical breakthrough benefits to you, it is not happening. So, who do you think is getting that advantage from the technological breakhroughs that they announce so boastfully everyeday? The higher cost thing does not explain the baggage fees. Their employees are fewer and fewer accoding to their own numbers and their costs are actually declining or holding steady.

I cannot find any good argument for charging baggage fees except that they could charge and increase their rate of return(not for you or the shareholders) but the top executives and the top management. And this is not going to change any time soon. If you do not believe that, then you only need to look at the average price a of a top executive these days to convince yurself. What do you do?

Again I do not know about you but I travel with no bag at all! I have other ways to ship my stuff and I do not need much to ship to travel to other places for fun. I personally do not think it is much fun except very occasionally. There is plenty to see and do within the range of your car. This travel mania is also created and promoted by the travel industry to get your dollar. Otherwise, the people are the same good people everywhere, they are the same as you and working to make a living. They have houses only slightly different than yours and no they do not live in trees.! And yes, they have water to drink and food to eat contrarry to what they may tell you on the TV. And they walk a lot and are probably healthier and breath easier.

3. They also promote travel tours to get your dollar. You will get to see the colosium, the greek ruins, the Frecnch Riviera, the largest mosque in the world or the the largest church or some famous buddhist temple in Thailand. Do you really want to see the Washingortm Memorial? For what? Do you really want to see the English Parliament in session or the queen addrssing it?  What for? And then when you come back you will probably be in debt and be paying for it for a long time. Remember, seeing all those things is not going to change anything in you. You are not going to look different! And you are not going to become a saint or something all of a sudden. Those people were there thousands of years ago and butchedred and killed each other for pretty much the same reasons as today. What is there to see and learn? It is the same. This is not worth gettin into unnecessary debt for. May be you are not convinced with this argument. Let me try another way and then you can decide if you still want that trip to Greece or Spain. Here goes...

What if you did not know about the pyramids in Egypt, or that you did? Would it make a difference in your daily life? Of course not. You will still be hungry wheather you knew anything about the past or did not see something. You will still have to eat lunch and you will still have to earn something to pay your bills or else get on welfare or become a monk and live a life in the street or the jungle, wandering about. That would not make a difference. So why people want to go places. I get the feeling that they are not doing that just to see old things or their supposed significance. It is just that you want some change and excitment. That is more omnipotent in this travel mania than anything else. But if that is the case then you can go somewhere withing the raeach of your car rather than half the world over that will get you in debt. I personally do not see anything in travel at all. You go to Las Vegas, say, and the casinos are the same, the food is tasteless as usual and way out of line and you lose your money and still do not learn when you already knew the odds. I do not like to go to Las Vegas at all. And I do not want to see the pyramids eihter. I will let you do that. I just do not want to give my hard earned money to the expensive airlines and the expensive food vendos, at the airports. I never eat at the airports. I avoid that food like the plague. Frankly, I do not know how people can put that kind of stuff in their bodies. I just do not know!

Conclusions:

Do not travel by air unless someone is paying for it. For yourself travel by air only when you can pay for it up-front.

Do not bother with tours at all. History is coming an going. You need to live your life as well as you can and as worry-free as possible rather than learn how the ancients were fighting and killing each other and what weapons they used to do that with. Do you really care what they were doing since we are doing pretty much the same thing only slightly differently but on a much larger scale. Skip it.

Do not eat air line food and drinks. It is a waste of your money. Only get some water if you need to. Your body does not need real food for 6 to 7 hours from the previous meal but you get hungry every 4 hours. But that is false hunger. Don't need to eat if the travel will be over within 6 hours. Enjoy the easy breathing and great confidence that comes if you stay hungry. You will feel alert and confident. You really need to eat only twice a day. Your body fat begins to break down after 6 hours and that is when you breath comes easy and effortlessly. Do not put the greasy restaurant food in your body. It is basically a slow poison for you. Eat only if you absolutely have to and then just get a bagel and a cup of tea. That is more than sufficient, really. You do not need to eat a heavy meal and heavy greasy stuff. Give your body a rest.

Do not sign up for any promotions. They are just techniques to rope you in and take your money. They are just testing their marketing tactics and using you as just an experimental unit.

When at the airport and do not want to eat just walk around the concourse waiting for your plane amd just watch others eating the heavy food. It is kind of fun. But in walking around you will lose several hundred calories and thank goodness for that. But drink a lot of good cold water and only that.

These are of course only my opinions and that is what I like to do with my money and time. You can of course do whatever you need or want to do. I just do not want to give my money to the colluding over-priced airline companies and the overpriced greasy food vendors at the airports.

RH