I think it was after the airlines collapsed post-9/11. The legacy carriers like United, and American have seriously less generous policies than in the past. And the upstarts like AirTran, JetBlue, Southwest, and Virgin America straight up do not offer bereavement fares.
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/travel/columnist/mcgee/2008-09-30-bereavement-fares_n.htm
Same here in reverse. One reason, apart from price of the tickets, that I fly Ryanair is that I arrive in the UK at Stansted and can hire a car about 30% cheaper than at Heathrow. And flights from Rygge, Norway to Krakow take two hours and are direct instead of four hours and a change in Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, or Warsaw from Gardermoen with Lufthansa, SAS, etcā¦ Also Iāve never had a any problems except for one officious checkin clerk making me repack two bags to get them under the limit (was a kilo over on one, two under on the other).
Ever hear of Southwest Airlines?
They do! And they sell smokeless cigarettes for the very needy, too.
I would fly Ryanair alone since I donĀ“t give a shit, but together with my wife whoĀ“s much more sensitive, the one time we did it was jarring and exhausting. It is without a doubt a highly tasteless and annoying experience, starting from the bright yellow plastic used in the planeĀ“s interiour to the adverts on the luggage compartments and the constant bombardment with audio ads and raffles. It also brings out the worst in people with the non-assigned seating, causing everyone to first walk briskly but barely composed across the airfield to the plane, until the first person starts running, triggering a stampede to the gangway, followd by agitated shoving and jostling once inside the plane. On second thought, IĀ“d probably pass on it even if I was flying alone.
Since I think nearly everyone who has commented is in agreement (including me) that they should have waived the fee, Iāll go on record saying that in principle Iām totally fine with extra fees for checked bags, on board food, etc. Airfare today is really, really cheap, and allowing really basic no-frills accommodations is one of the only ways that many people can fly at all - to visit family, to take vacations, and so on. Flights today, adjusted for inflation, cost several times less than the same flights in 1980 or 1970 even with the extra fees. Part of that is due to improved technology, but the other part is due to changing laws allowing more competition on fares, which drove the emergence of low-cost airlines in the 1990ās and 2000ās.
But the situation for many business travelers is different. Not executives with private jets, not upper management flying business class, but near-entry-level employees or those at smaller companies. Some companies can be very restrictive about taking the lowest priced flights that get you where you need to be at the right time, and may not reimburse costs that in the past would have been included in the ticket price.
What I really miss from the old days is the non-farting section.
Yes, they absolutely do. I donāt know if itās a European thing specifically, as it does seem different over there than it does here in Canada, but plenty of the people in Ireland will specifically check airline websites for rates directly instead of going to the aggregators like Travelocity, etc. Primarily because often, you can find cheaper rates directly on the airlineās website (this has been my experience here in Canada as well, actually, with Air Canada in particular).
As to my own experience flying RyanAir - I lived in Ireland from 2004-2006, and did a lot of weekend getaways to various places around Europe. Most of the popular destinations - Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, Prague, etc. Only once was RyanAir the cheapest option, and we regretted that 20 euro we saved almost immediately. No assigned seating? What kind of crazy pants policy is THAT? Aer Lingus was almost always a cheaper option, and a FAR superior airline (at the time, any way, I canāt speak to current service levels).
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