Airline executives were relentlessly grilled by furious senators on Wednesday over skyrocketing fees for luggage, seat assignments, and other “money-grabbing” practices. During a scathing hearing led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, chair of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, lawmakers accused the airlines of treating passengers like walking ATMs.
Blumenthal didn’t mince words, declaring, “Airlines these days view their customers as little more than walking piggy banks to be shaken down for every possible dime.” He tore into executives from American, Delta, United, Spirit, and Frontier, armed with a report showing these airlines raked in a staggering $12.4 billion in seat fees between 2018 and 2023.
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley unleashed his own fury, describing the fees as “Russian roulette.” “Nobody enjoys flying on your airlines. It’s a disaster. It’s terrible. Absolutely terrible!” he thundered.
Blumenthal’s year-long investigation exposed how airlines increasingly use algorithms to target passengers with customized fees, exploiting those willing to pay more. Frontier and Spirit were especially scorched for paying gate agents bonuses to bust passengers trying to dodge bag fees. “This isn’t enforcement—this is shoplifting from your own customers,” Blumenthal fumed.
Airline execs scrambled to defend themselves. Delta’s Peter Carter insisted their fees offer “options and value,” while United’s Andrew Nocella claimed ending family seating fees would cost them “hundreds of millions.” Frontier CEO Barry Biffle went so far as to justify targeting passengers at gates, calling it necessary to stop “cheaters.”
Despite their excuses, senators made it clear they’re tired of airlines bleeding passengers dry. “This is exploitation, plain and simple,” Blumenthal roared. “The flying public deserves better.”
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10 Responses
AirCanada staff were also incentivized to harass passengers by bags. Southwest & JetBlue seem like the best of the discount carriers.
Total nonsense. These Senators need to stay out of the free market. These airlines do a great job. Spirit makes flying affordable. They have helped Americans more than Josh Hawley and his cohorts have ever done.
They should of said they require the gender to avoid the drama & delays of sitting a Chasidish man next to a woman.
I was on a flight where a Chasidish man was causing a scene by refusing to sit next to a woman.
Finally the Captain got on the PA & said, “Sir, if you don’t sit down next to your wife I will have you escorted off the plane.”
Stupid entitled demoncats. Think the world owes them something .
I don’t get it. No one’s forcing you to be a walking piggy bank. If you don’t want to pay, choose a different airline. This is America. Aren’t you guys supposed to believe in free market capitalism? I mean I understand why people are annoyed about higher costs, I would be too. But you can’t tell off a company for trying to make the most money they can (so long as they’re not breaking the law and not forcing harm on anyone). Vote with your feet people!
Maybe senators can appreciate how these airlines shuttle millions of whining, cheating and misbehaving customers to their urgent vacation destinations at relatively low prices.
And if they think it can be done better, they can open their own airline.
What happened to elal they werent grilled?
Finally someone is saying something thsy that both sides can agree on.
This is an experience(bag fees and add ons) which I am personally suffering for a while and on a consistent basis.
I know that many other people are upset with “fuel charges ” and all sort of fees.
However I wonder if anything will actually happen legislatively to stop it.
Under capitalism, it is the airline’s right to offer poor service in return for low prices. It is not the government’s role to tell private businesses what to do. The sole role (in terms of business model) for the government is exercised by the “United States Trustee” in bankruptcy cases (and presumably since Spirit has gone belly up, the Trustee’s is involved). However it is a private corporation’s right to offer whatever business model they choose, and if they choose wrong (as did Spirit), it’s the stockholders’ problem not the government.
You guys don’t seem to have understood the problem at all. Maybe you shouldd rewatch. An airline has full right to be cheap and give bad service what you dont have a right to do is SCAM people and rip rhem off without them knowing. You book a cheap ticket and think you can pack in a backpack so you don’t pay the 30 something dollars for a carry on. Problem is that you show up get singled out of line since it may look a drop big and oops it doesnt perfectly fit in the metal mbox so you get charged $100!! I personnaly paid $35 for a frontier ticket and then got charged $99 when my bag was a drop to big! The crazy part is that if you buy a carry on before its $30 so all the sudden at the gate it’s $99?? Thats scammming not poor service.