I'm surprised that many of you are surprised about change fees, food and drink charges, etc.etc.

Airline travel is way cheaper than it was 10, 20 30, etc. years ago.

When the customer demands cheap fares, the airline will adjust. Part of the adjustment is adding any and all possible fees when you don't stick to the original itn and start charging for food and drinks.

The airline does make money of the food and drinks. AA does not offer a menu in economy, they have either a red or blue box(not really sure about the colors). The FA announces at the beggining of the flight which box is available for purchase on that particular flight. The flight magazine lists the items in the box.

So, in theory at least, it does not take any more time to distribute the boxes to the passengers that want it. I believe they do it at the same time they do the drink cart. What's the difference if they have to collect $5 for a drink or $10 for the drink and food box? Besides, in the "good ole days" the FAs also took time off from their "safety" duties to serve food and drinks so what's the difference?

At the end of the day the airline does make money during the flight without taking away any extra time from other FA's duties.

The only one that has some more work is the purser. S/he has to do some accounting at the end of the flight, but they also get paid few extra $ if they choose that job on that flight.

Personally, I'd like to see the airlines sell everything at the gate. You know how dirty those $5 bills are? Have you ever been in a strip club? The FA touch the money, then the food. Disgusting.

Seatmaestro.com seems like work in progress... I think they made the mistake of uploading the info they have without having finished the work. You can tell that they have a template where they place the seat maps and that is why comments get repeated...kind of funny...
I personally find this could be pretty useful (once it is finished or completed) so I´ll keep an eye on them. Check AA...this seems complete and it looks like quality work.

Easyjet. And horrible coffee it was.

This whole charging for means thing is crazy. They charge you $5 or $10 for meal on a ticket that might be $1000 and create great anger in passengers when they could have built the price into the ticket. I really don't unbderstand this level of stupidity in their public relations.

Maybe if they did charge they would serve better coffee.