Can We Stomach Paying For Airline Food?

Imagine the next time you book a flight, you're asked if you wantto purchase a meal or a snack. If you decline, your fare is $20 to$50 cheaper.

According to some U.S. airline executives, this could be thefuture.

These executives said the policies -- while still very much in theconceptual stages -- would apply primarily to passengers in coach orthose who purchased nonrefundable tickets. Sound familiar? (Seesecond item.)

To be sure, those passengers in first or business class wouldcontinue to be served meals, the executives said. That's becausefirst-class passengers either paid top dollar to sit in that sectionor they have so many frequent-flier miles that they're valuedcustomers of the airline.

If a carrier made such a move, it would probably be to an a{grv}la carte system of food pricing, said B. Ben Baldanza, senior vicepresident of marketing and planning for US Airways. "I'll besurprised if we don't see some experimentation in that area,"Baldanza said.

So does this mean US Airways is considering such a move?

Baldanza won't say.

At least one airline has already adopted an a{grv} la carte foodpolicy: Air Canada's Tango, which was launched last November as a no-frills alternative for its price-conscious, mostly leisure travelers.Passengers pay 64 cents for soft drinks, coffee or tea. Crackers,cookies or fruit are about $2.60. And soup is about $1.30. The onlyfree item is water.

Tango executives said most of the airline's flights are less thantwo hours long and about 60 percent of its passengers purchase anitem during a trip. Tango, which serves 23 Canadian cities, is an all-coach carrier, like Southwest Airlines. Tango executives said theairline's costs are about 25 percent lower than Air Canada's and itsfares are an average of $20 lower.

Ben Smith, Tango's managing director, said the a{grv} la carteservice has been successful and could be adopted by U.S. airlines, aslong as passengers knew upfront that they would have to pay forsnacks and beverages when they booked their tickets. "Based on ourexperience, I don't know why anyone wouldn't do this," Smith said.

But Patricia Hill, an Alexandria software developer and frequentflier, said she was not willing to substitute cheaper fares fora{grv} la carte snack service. "I don't care how cheap an airlinesays a ticket is -- if I'm paying $700 to fly to Chicago, I should atleast be able to get a blasted Coke," she said.

Travelers were outraged by last week's news that US Airways wasprohibiting passengers who buy cheaper, nonrefundable tickets andmiss their flight from applying the value of the ticket to a futureflight. The airline also said those passengers could no longer flystandby or use those tickets to qualify for elite service within itsfrequent-flier program.

Since then, American Airlines and Continental Airlines have madesimilar moves; their unused nonrefundable tickets for people whomissed their flights will be worthless as of Oct. 1. And bothcarriers opted to begin charging travelers a $100 fee to fly standbynext year.

Internet travel chat boards such as Flyertalk.com were floodedwith comments from travelers as well as calls for a boycott of USAirways. Some sites even printed the telephone numbers and e-mailaddresses of several US Airways executives.

Business Class readers blamed US Airways for starting what maybecome an industry-wide policy. "US Airways doesn't get it. Theycontinue to punish their customers when [the airline's executives]are the problems," wrote Ben Psillas of the District. Psillas hasnearly 44,000 frequent-flier mileage points with US Airways. "Youhave already eliminated magazines and other perks. Maybe you shouldrequire customers to pay to use the toilet."

Paul Rosenthal of Arlington (US Airways' hometown) has 200,000frequent-flier points. Rosenthal described the move as "bad business,bad policy, bad public relations and bad for the country." Because USAirways received $600 million in federal grants last year and wasconditionally approved for a federal loan guarantee of $900 million,taxpayers' dollars helped finance the airline's changes, he said.

Michael Prescott of Springfield said if he can no longer flystandby with his nonrefundable ticket, then "you can bet I will notfly them anymore."

Lois Colburn of Bethesda wrote that it's often business travelersthese days who are flying on those nonrefundable tickets --otherwise, they would not be able to fly at all.

"When days begin well before dawn to get to the airport and endwell after midnight when the connecting flight gets home, do frequent-flier miles and other perks such as upgrades or extra legroom make adifference? You bet they do," she said.

US Airways' Baldanza, who oversaw the ticket-rule changes, said hewas "overwhelmed" by the number of responses. Baldanza said some ofthe comments were "constructive," while others, such as those thatreferred to him as a seven-letter vulgarism, were not. Because of theamount of feedback, Baldanza said some of the planned changes mightbe altered slightly. But he declined to offer specifics.

Do you have any questions or concerns about US Airways' recentticket-policy changes or the future of its frequent-flier mileageprogram? Baldanza, who oversaw last week's changes, will offeranswers in an online chat on washingtonpost.com Friday at 11 a.m.

How did the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks affect your businesstravel? Has your company changed any travel policies? Are you drivingor catching the train more than you did before the attacks? Let meknow. E-mail me at alexanderk@washpost.com or write me at TheWashington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071.