Shocking Headline of the Day

A couple days ago, while browsing the Xfinity "news" portal (a term I now use advisedly ever since they are apparently linking to my articles here), I saw a headline listed about travel --

I was a curious to read it, since I have a bunch of trips planned in the coming months and I've been researching the cost of airline tickets.  I have bought tickets for a couple of the trips, and did notice that the prices were notably higher than in the past (by a couple hundred dollars, in one instance) though I was pretty sure it's because I was traveling during the summer.  Still, I was interested to find out if there were any other reasons, or perhaps other fare increases coming, for one of my later trips.  So, I clicked to read the story.

It turns out that the cost of the TSA payment is increasing.  Here's the appropriate passage from the article --

"The current fee is $2.50 for a non-stop flight or $5 for a connecting flight. The new fee will be $5.60 for all flights, with any connection longer than four hours counting as a separate flight."

Yes, you got it right.  The big airfare increase that this headline story was about was -- for non-stop flights -- a whopping $3.10.  But if you're on a connecting flight, the increase will be...hold on to your seat... a grand total of 60 cents!!

No, that's not a typo.  That's a headline story, important enough enough to be set off and highlighted in boldface so that it will stand out.  Complete with a picture of folded up money being thrown away into the wind.

Given that the cost of any airline flight sometimes may fluctuate $50-100 throughout the course of the day, I am going to wager big cash money (and by "big cash money," I mean 60 cents) that most people are not -- are never -- going to notice that "the cost of airfare just went up."  In fact, depending on when you check, it's possible that many people might think that the cost of airfare actually went down.  Indeed, it's hard to imagine that a couple of bucks (at most) are going to have even the slightest, barest, most minuscule impact on price enough for people to simply notice, let alone care.

If the price of a hot dog went up 60 cents, you might not notice.  If the cost of your monthly Comcast bill went up $3.10, you might not even care.  Ebenezer Scrooge probably wouldn't care.  Indeed, considering that airlines charge you $25 to check a basic suitcase, most people would probably be thrilled and relieved that that the price of an airline ticket merely went up between just 60 cents and $3.10, 
By the way, you'll notice that the next story is "7 Habits That Waste Your Money."  Given that they establish their concern for you 60 cents, I am shocked that they were able able limit the number of habits down to just seven.