Extra Charges on Airplanes

Tuesday, January 5, 2010 at 10:27 AM

Not sure if I'm back to writing yet, but here's an entry I wrote previously, before Thanksgiving:

I’m writing this from midair right now, en route from Boston to Detroit. I’m traveling back home from MIT to spend Thanksgiving with my family. I just finished my apple juice and delicious ginger snap cookies when I started thinking about the costs of what I just incurred.

A drink normally costs about 1$ from the vending machine, and a snack of cookies might cost around 75 cents. For simplicity, we will say I just ate 2$ worth of snacks on this flight. However, we have to account for the screening costs of bring stuff onto an airplane (screening for safety, government guidelines, etc.). Of course, there is the cost in air fuel to fly this stuff; how many gallons of pricey jet fuel does it take to hurtle 16oz at +400mph over 500 miles? I’m going to guess it’s more than 1 gallon, so that’s another 3 bucks added on. In total, I wouldn’t be surprised if the added cost to me of enjoying an apple juice + ice, with some gingersnap cookies is more than 10$ out of my wallet.

This is why I’m not so angry when airlines start to charge extra for little things such as sitting in the exit row or checking in bags, and dropping other services altogether. This stuff that we used to enjoy, costs money! And frankly, I might prefer to save some money on my flight ticket. Obviously, this opinion changes a little for longer flights.

I’ll follow up this post with an estimate of the cost to hurtle 1lb through the air for 500 miles. When I land and have access to the internet, that is.

From 10,000 ft in the air,

Howitzer

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