Choose Your Own Airline Price

But, however you characterize it, all the vote-for-your-amenity campaigns by all the airlines sound like election year stunts to me. And, no offense to my Canadian friends, I'm not even sure many Hockey Moms among us would approve.

What's happening, I think, is that the executive branch (all the airlines) is trying to broaden its powers and you, the constituents (read: passengers), don't have a vote on that. But you have a vote when it comes to electing your amenities. The airlines spin this as a good thing: Why, you only pay for what you use. And Air Canada, which came out of bankruptcy in 2004 and pioneered the accelerated unbundling to keep up with lower cost competitor WestJet, likes the word "transparency." What could be better than transparency?

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Hmm. I think someone's putting lipstick on that infamous pig.

For one thing, this elect-your-amenity mentality hurts consumers, because it makes it more and more difficult to compare airfare prices among airlines.

Say, for example, you want to fly from Point A to Point B. And three airlines share that route, but two of the carriers have bag fees, and the other has a "premium seat" fee, and one of the bag-fee airlines has a drink fee, and … you see where I'm going. Better get your calculator out.

And talk about transparency: The airlines are trying to dilute the comparison power of the Internet, which, to their chagrin, has turned airline tickets into a commodity. Unbundling means passengers are being asked to compare apples to -- well, not even to oranges. It's more like apples to asparagus. It will be painful and it won't be pretty.

Why are the airlines doing this? You know the answer. I mean, in this election year, we've all heard the phrase "money is the mother's milk of politics," and the cash generated by fees and amenities is certainly keeping the legacy network airlines alive. Oh, how the money rolls in.

Thanks to unbundling, United Airlines expects to bring in an additional $700 million a year, while Northwest figures it'll rake in as much as $200 million a year on baggage fees alone.