[doodaddy]

> Instead of the clear, itemized pricing system that passengers currently rely on, airlines could hide fees until later in the booking process…

They call what we have now “clear”? Where when looking at a page of flights I don’t know how much the multitude of economy/economy+/economy++/premium economy/business/business++ seats will cost until I click on each flight? Where every carrier offers slightly different variations of these seats such that I can’t cross-shop on Google Flights?

Is that the clear and transparent system the airlines are complaining about?

[kindatrue]

Those are all optional fees.

What they want is a return to the old pre-Obama days where all the taxes and mandatory fees (government and stuff they made up) were only displayed at check out. Kind of like resort fees on hotels.

[code_for_monkey]

yeah, now imagine when its even worse

[Mistletoe]

I’ve seen the movie Brazil and I wish more people had so they would have voted better.

[caycep]

it was worse in the 80's-90's...I guess the past few years of enjoying refunds was not meant to last...

[ahmeneeroe-v2]

This is a pro level feature set. I don't think most flyers feel bilked that they can't do this. Absolute price sensitivity (meaning bottom line, not "cheapest business class") is the factor for most people and that is easy to see on any of the flight search engines.

[bluGill]

For most perhaps, but I want to know what I'll really pay. I already know I'm going to check luggage (or not, but now that I have kids and am going for longer vacations checked bags is not something I'll do without), so I want to see the price with checked bags. Likewise I know I'm willing to pay for the legroom of economy plus (the rest of my family doesn't care, though my kids are soon hit their final growth and soon will). I've just added $1000 to my actually price, but all I see is the per person ticket price with no options...

There is a reason I took Amtrak last vacation. Too bad they doen't go do where my next vacation will be.

[lumost]

Not to mention the lack of standards on leg room/entertainment packages/food quality for any of the above combinations on any airline!

[SpaceNoodled]

I literally don't fit in certain carriers' seats because my legs are longer than their seat pitch.

[ahmeneeroe-v2]

You want regulations on in-flight entertainment packages??

[FinnKuhn]

At least Google flights shows you an estimate for the airline

[supertrope]

You can always buy an economy plus ticket.

[JustExAWS]

Well rule #1 is never to book a flight on a third party travel portal. When things go wrong, you now have to deal with the travel portal and the airline.

[jghn]

Many people will do things like use Google Travel to narrow down an initial set of potential flights based on times & cost, and then go to the individual airlines from there to book things. The GPs post is still a problem in this scenario.

[trzy]

Google Flights isn’t a third party portal! It takes you directly to the airline web site to book. It attempts to estimate the fare price but that’s becoming increasingly difficult with variably priced seats and other “gotcha” expenses that get figured in deep into the booking flow.

[lotsofpulp]

If each flight leg is a different price, how can the website show you the total until you select both (or all) legs?

[sjm-lbm]

FWIW, at least as of today, American Airlines' website attempts to show you round trip prices.

When choosing your outbound leg(s), they show a price inclusive of the cheapest return journey on the day you selected to return using the class of service on your outbound leg. So, there's all sorts of ways for it to be incorrect - maybe you want a different class of service, maybe the cheapest return has a stop but you'd like the direct, etc. - but it's still really useful for figuring out the best options for your flights.

[gertlex]

Kayak.com does it... it's very much a UX choice of whether to show combinations of flights at a given "level" (economy/main/1st class) or instead dedicate the space to showing the prices at all levels, and only show a flight at a time.

[nostrademons]

They usually show you a minimum, then have you select each leg, with the price for that leg fully displayed.

[nerdponx]

That doesn't mean it's not opaque and complicated.

[BeetleB]

What airlines are you searching on?

Whenever I search (admittedly mostly on Southwest), I get everything up front.

[Aurornis]

> Every time I paid by cache on oil stations. Sometimes my car was half empty, sometimes it was almost full, but I expected long run. And every time amount I need to pay was completely unpredictable.

How is this any different than filling up a car in any other country?

Gas stations post their prices outside. You should get a feel for how many gallons are going into the tank when it’s half full or mostly full.

The pump shows the price in real time as you’re pumping. You can stop whenever you want. I’m having a hard time believing your story because it’s so clear what your price is by the second as you pump.

Also FYI: You could have walked into the gas station and asked the attendant for “$20 on pump #3” and then pump #3 would only dispense $20.00 of gas before stopping.

> I had very strong aftertaste that USA as part of the Western Civilization at this moment built on top of hidden slavery,

Gas stations charging by the gallon is slavery? What? I’m having a hard time believing this comment is real and not just some “America bad” thing. You can’t honestly equate paying for gas to slavery or act like paying by the gallon only happens in the United States.

[ericmay]

If you drove your car across 17 countries in Europe would you expect to pay the same at every station you come across? I don't think what you're saying is even the norm within European countries, is it?

[some_random]

Gonna be honest, I think you're just lying. There is a giant sign outside every gas station with the exact price per gallon of gas including tax. As you pump, there is a display with the exact cost of what you have pumped. It's one of the few cases where the cost is completely transparent.

[zitterbewegung]

Each gas station in America does two things. One they take delivery of gas and they have to factor this with the future price of gas which requires one piece of data to setup the price of gas. The other piece of data is that they determine the price to also factor in demand which is obvious for them. Thats primarily why you can't predict gas prices. They can mess this up this easily.

[wat10000]

What a bizarre example. Gas in the US is priced about as transparently as it is possible to be. There isn't even the thing where you have to add sales taxes on to the posted price, like there is with most other things in the US. Every single station has the total price per gallon, inclusive of all taxes, on a giant sign. The amount you pay is literally the number of gallons you pumped multiplied by that number.

If you're going to make up stories, at least do five seconds of research first to make it vaguely plausible.

[kortilla]

You didn’t know how to pay for gas so you felt like you were in a country built on hidden slavery!?