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For years, some of the biggest airline companies in the U.S. have been increasingly relying on ancillary feeslike advanced seat assignments and carry-on bag coststo meet their bottom lines. Now, passengers are getting sick of it. On August 19, two separate lawsuits filed against Delta and United allege that both airlines have charged passengers an extra fee for window seats that didnt actually have windows. This class action seeks redress for Deltas intentional practice of charging passengers premium fees to obtain seats that Delta indicates have a window,’ but which are actually next to a blank wall, the Delta suit reads. The lawsuits come as airlines complicated ticketing processes have faced increased scrutiny for potentially using dark patterns to deceive customers and boost bottom lines. “Windowless” window seats The first lawsuit was filed against Delta by plaintiff Nicholas Meyer and his attorneys at the litigation firm Greenbaum Olbrantz, while the second suit against United was filed by two attorneys at the same firm. According to a report from The Washington Post, Meyer was flying to California on Delta Flight 826 in seat 23Fa spot hed paid extra to secure in order to sit next to a window. When he arrived at the flight, however, he found that his seat actually faced a bare wall. For many years, Delta has knowingly and routinely sold windowless ‘window’ seats to travelers, the suit reads. For instance, various models of Deltas Boeing 737, Boeing 757, and Airbus A321 aircraft are built with one or more seats that would traditionally have a window, but do not include one due to the placement of air conditioning ducts, electrical conduits, or other interior components. The document goes on to claim that Delta has likely sold over a million windowless window seats throughout the class period. The United suit flags the Boeing 737 and Airbus A321 as two aircrafts used by the company with the problem, providing the same estimate of over a million windowless seats sold. In an email to The Post, Meyers attorney, Casey Olbrantz, added, Many other airlines affirmatively disclose to consumers that the very same seats have no window view. United and Delta could easily do the same, but they conveniently omit this fact and accept substantial extra fees that consumers would not have otherwise paid. United declined Fast Companys request for comment on the lawsuit, and Delta did not respond by press time. A bigger problem The frustration over paying extra for an allegedly windowless window seat reflects a broader pattern among some of the largest players in the airline industry. According to a Senate report released late last year, between 2018 and 2023, the airlines American, Delta, United, Spirit, and Frontier netted $12.4 billion in revenue from ancillary fees like advanced seat assignments and carry-on bags. The report also posited that deceptive UX practices and dynamic pricing helped to drive up costs for passengers. Airline websites and mobile applications bury critical information, such as the cost of selecting a particular seat, at later stages of the booking process, the report alleged. At some airlines, proprietary algorithms use consumer data to help set the price of fees so that different people attempting to book the exact same flight at the exact same time may be charged different prices for checking a bag. Several airlines have abandoned elements of their unique branding to play into this game of additional add-ons: In 2024, Spirit Airlines moved further from its origins as a low-budget carrier by implementing a new seat class with extra add-ons, while Southwest scrapped its iconic bags fly free and open seating policies in favor of a tiered pricing system. And this July, Delta announced that it has begun using AI to institute dynamic pricing based on factors like seat availability, current news, weather conditions, and even fluctuating oil prices. The cumulative effect of these changes is that, over time, every airline is starting to behave similarlyand the passenger experience is suffering.
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E-Commerce
Apple announced Thursday that its hiking the price of a monthly subscription for its Apple TV+ streaming service by $3, to $12.99. This latest increase, the companys third in three years, means subscribers will now pay nearly double the amount to stream popular TV shows like Severance or The Studio as they did as recently as October 2023. Though Apple is moving in step with other streaming services that have similarly raised prices this year, its the first time the technology company has increased the rate for Apple TV+ since 2023. Unlike other streaming services, Apple TV+ doesnt have a lower-priced subscription tier thats supported by advertising, instead offering a one-price-for-all model that falls in the middle of the price tiers offered by both Netflix and Hulu. The new $12.99 rate is now in effect for new subscribers, following a free seven-day trial, while existing customers will see the price hike 30 days after their next renewal date. The cost of an annual subscription, currently $99, has not changed. APPLE STILL LAGS IN POPULARITY Apple may be banking that consumers will pay up, given the recent critical acclaim for its TV shows and popularity of its theatrical film F1: The Movie, starring Brad Pitt. Last month, Apple received a record-breaking 81 nominations for Primetime Emmy Awards, led by Severance with 27 nominations. But the Cupertino, California-based company is reportedly losing more than $1 billion annually on the streaming service, according to reporting earlier this year by The Information, and its marketing efforts have fallen flat. And while more than 80% of Americans use streaming services, according to a Pew Research Center survey released in July, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video continue to reign supreme. Apple TV+ ranked eighth in popularity, with only 25% of respondents saying they watch Apple TV+ programming. American households now spend an average of $69 per month on the cost of four paid streaming services combined, according to a report released by Deloitte in March. And consumers have become savvy about gaming the monthly subscription services to binge-watch shows they want to watch. Several people on Reddit noted that they routinely subscribe to Apple TV+ for a month or two before canceling and will continue to do so, even at the higher rate, while another noted that the size of the services catalog doesnt justify this new price.
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E-Commerce
Lip balm on your phone case. A backpack on a Stanley. A Labubu for your Labubu. Cute branded accessories are nothing new. For decades, consumers have been enticed by the prospect of collecting aesthetically pleasing knickknacks, from Troll dolls to Tamagotchis. Recently, though, the accessory craze has taken a meta turn: Every accessory now needs to have its own accessory. Consider the recent excitement around Labubu dolls as a prime example. These bug-eyed elves, designed for the sole purpose of being attached to a bag or clothing, helped their parent company, Pop Mart, triple its profits in 2024 to a total of $920 million. The fever is still raging, with fans clambering to buy new colors and stylesand even potentially dangerous knockoffs. As quirky bag charms like the Labubu have taken off, the accessorys accessory has become part of the mainstream. Its been legitimized by major brands like Prada, which sells a $1,350 robot bag charm; Louis Vuitton, which offers a beaded phone strap that can only be purchased by contacting the company; and, most recently, Kendall Jenners 818 tequila brand, which turned its mini shooters into a keychain. “Accessory-ception” appears to be a new way for brands across a diverse range of categories to tap into the demand for collectiblesand a sure sign that accessory culture has gone too far. Here are four of the wildest accessories for accessories weve seen so far. [Photo: Rhode] Rhode phone case Rhodes $35 lip gloss phone cases, which debuted in February 2024, are exactly what they sound like: two custom phone cases with purpose-built slots for carrying (Rhode-branded) lip gloss. Before they even launched, both cases already had a waitlist. After they sold out and relaunched two months later, those waitlists numbered in the hundreds of thousands. The lip case inspired hundreds of TikTok reviews, DIY tutorials, and even a parody from Heinz ketchupand its success showed other brands that the meta accessory could serve as both a popular collectible and a wearable marketing opportunity. [Photo: Stanley] Stanley backpacks The Stanley tumbler, which absolutely dominated the internetand cupholders nationwidein late 2023 and early 2024, has become perhaps the most famous canvas for the endless accessorization cycle. Stanley itself sells a backpack of sorts for its famous tumbler, as well as a keychain for said tumbler that’s also shaped like, you guessed it, a tumbler. But the Stanley accessorization gets even stranger in the world of TikTok Stanley packers. Within this subgenre, social media creators have found a shocking number of ways to further accessorize their Stanleys until theyre almost unrecognizable. In one TikTok with 270,000 views, creator @missyysparks shows herself packing her Stanley for Christmas shopping, a task that involves clipping a lip gloss, a container of Tylenol, and a tumbler keychain full of cough drops to the water bottle. In another video with 279,000 views, creator @nicolepamelaaa preps for a hot girl walk by affixing an entire snack platter of cheese and grapes to the top of her cup, as well as tucking a tiny tumbler with a single shot of energy drink into her Stanleys backpack. Is the walk the Oregon Trail by any chance? one commenter wrote. Why does your Stanley have a Stanley? another asked. Our question exactly. [Photo: Trove Brands, LLC] Owala bottle charm In light of this dystopian Stanley accessorization spiral, other water bottle companies have attempted to put their own spin on the trend. This June, Owala collaborated with the jewelry company Made by Mary to create a necklace with a tiny Owala-shaped charm, accompanied by a sparkly Owala bottle with a mini version of itself attached as a charm. The bundle cost $99.99 and sold outgiving Owala superfans a meta-accessory to flex on less deep-pocketed water bottle enthusiasts. [Photo: Getty Images] Labubu for your Labubu Generally, Labubus are the epitome of the meta-accessory trend: They serve no purpose other than to look aesthetically pleasing (debatable), and they can be dressed up in a variety of tiny outfits, which has led third-party sellers to create such necessities as Labubu wigs, jerseys, hats, and car seats. Thus, it was only a matter of time before someone found a way to give a Labubu its own Labubu. One Redditor in the subreddit r/labubu did just that by sourcing a mini version of the doll and affixing it to the original keychain-style. A Labubu for my Labubu, the posts caption reads. It’s a Lalabububu or a Labulabububu, one commenter responded. Another added, Your Labubus Labubu needs a Labubu.”
Category:
E-Commerce
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