alt Hacker NewsI think then you have to provide a strong argument for why a particular product/service should be considered under the "community-wide benefit" umbrella.
Public health is very clearly to me a collective good: I benefit from others being healthy in so many ways. Similar things can be said about funding schools; I don't have children, but I will benefit from the next generation of adults being well-educated. Welfare and supportive housing reduces crime and general dirtiness and decay where I live, so I'm happy that my taxes go toward that (I want more going toward that, honestly). I don't need to make arguments involving empathy to prove these things make sense, which is good when there are so many people not motivated by empathy.
But I'm not sure affordable flights is a public good. Certainly I want air travel to be accessible to more people; it shouldn't be the kind of thing only well-off people can do. (When I was a kid in the 80s/90s, we didn't have the money to fly, which limited our vacation choices.) But I'm not convinced that regulation should aim to "redistribute" cost so that people like myself should pay more for flights so others can pay less; that doesn't feel like it benefits me or the "public", really.
In general, though, I think the market is actually working for once. Airlines have unbundled a lot of things, and then there's basic economy as well. Even with airline consolidation, (inflation-adjusted) fares are pretty low, and if you want a basic economy fare, or even a regular economy fare (but without checked baggage or refunds or changes), you can get a pretty good price.
Replies
There are very good reasons to not let people rebook for free, and that's why more and more booked services are splitting their offers in refundable and non-refundable rates. It's to reward the actual clients who stick with their reservation, rather than those who book a bunch of stuff that they are only going to cancel later.
Thats a fair point. I think you may be right this falls on the test of public interest, where minimum seat dimensions and exit/emergency safety doesn't.
I don't personally LIKE LCC and the unbundling, I tend to believe evidence that when you are driven to LCC pricing and then factor back in the unavoidable costs it can be more expensive than the cheaper bundled product from mainlines.
Maybe the limit of regulatory control here should be "final total cost must be shown before committing" so that all taxes, airport levies, state charges, and other unavoidable costs (card processing fees?) are shown in the pricing, because I am led to believe a $99 fare can wind up $150 or more once all the unavoidable extras in that price are factored in.
Basically, I concede.