Chris may have written about this the other day, but too bad. It bears repeating.
A Congressional stalemate over funding means that the government cannot currently collect taxes of around $45 on a $400 round-trip ticket. But rather than passing that savings along to travelers, the country’s major carriers actually raised fares over the weekend to make up the difference.These companies are evil. I've always said, avoid American carriers like the plague. They exist to violate you, nothing more. They are the worst example of American capitalism - profit uber alles. Perhaps some day Washington will start an illegal price fixing investigation into why every single airline charges the exact same price, to a penny, for the same flights. They're clearly working together, but they've bought off Washington, so nobody in town will do a thing to stop them.
American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, US Airways and jetBlue were first off the runway to raise prices on Friday night by at least 7.5% to keep the bottom-line ticket price unchanged, despite the tax-break. United, Delta and Continental followed suit Saturday night, while Frontier and Virgin America hiked prices on Sunday night, according to Tom Parsons, CEO of BestFares.com.
