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Comment by tayo42 | Hacker News Reader

Just bought airline tickets the other day and it was such a frustrating experience to go through. United has 4 levels of economy, it was so tedious to compare luggage fees between them. If I want to sit next to my partner it would be an extra 200 off the lowest price both of us needed to upgrade... Then to bring a carry on.

I was using Google flights to compare and they all advertise the really low price, for lowest tier economy. Then yeah clicking through each one to figure out what the final price, getting hit with insurance upgrades, are you sure you don't want economy+ or w/e upgrades on each page.

The fee names seemed insane. There was a 10 dollar 9/11 fee? Wtf is that?

The prices are changing like everyday? Extra unessary pressure to buy. Why can't we just have consistent pricing, instead of taking advantage of people trying to fly when it's convientent.

The whole experience used to be be simpler I think. Just compare and buy and show up.

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As for sitting next to a partner, if you don't absolutely need to guarantee it, then you can wait til you get to the airport and ask at the gate if they can move you to be beside each other.

If the plane is totally full you'll be out of luck, but if there's space then the gate agents will happily reassign you.

Similar approach here: we have a lot better things to do with 400 after tax dollars than spend them to collapse to zero the chance that we'll sit separately in an airliner for a few hours. If that happens, we'll enjoy $400 worth of dinners out way more than sitting together anyway...

I find we usually get assigned seats next to each other anyway unless the plane is completely checked in full for aisles and windows even without asking.

we don't need to guarantee it, but its nice to be able to share drinks and an on flight bag.

I do that now sometimes, but even lately some airlines charge more for the aisle and window seat.

On the flip side of this my partner and I recently decided to pay the additional fee to Spirit to ensure that us, our 6 year old, and our 18 month old (traveling on lap) could sit together. We paid extra to sit toward the front of the plane to minimize time on the plane after landing. As we were boarding we were told that we had been moved because the row we were in was the exit row and we could not sit there with a child (though they let us select that row no problem when they wanted more money). They reassigned us to the very last row on the plane with no window for our 6 year old and no refund on our seat selection fee. I will probably just take my chances asking at the gate next time.

Yeah but people reserve all the window and aisle seats because sitting in the middle seat is miserable so all the empty seats will be middle seats well before the plane is full.

> There was a 10 dollar 9/11 fee? Wtf is that?

1. It's included in the price you see on Google Flights.

2. Every airline pays it.

3. It's the cost of the TSA reach-*** that you do when going through security.

4. If you don't like it, talk to the airport, or your congresscritter. The airline has no control over it.

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