Page 13 - Florida Sentinel 9-18-18

National
Tornillo Tent City Will Expand To Hold Even More Migrant Kids
An agent with the Department of Homeland Security closes the exterior gate of the holding facility for immigrant children in Tornillo, Texas, near the Mexican border, Thursday, June 21, 2018.
Airlines’ Latest Customer Shakedown? Making You Bid For A Seat Upgrade
The list of things not in- cluded with your plane ticket seems to be constantly grow- ing. First it was food, then it was checked bags, and now it’s your literal seat assignment. Buying a plane ticket has been stripped down to mean that you are paying for your mere right to get on the plane; any- thing else is extra.
These extra fees are known as “ancillary revenue,” and in 2017, the top 10 airlines brought in $29.7 billion of it, according to a report by Idea- Works. In the past few years, some airlines have added a new source to that revenue stream: seat bidding, allowing passengers in economy to enter an auction on upgrades to first class. The idea is that instead of seats going empty, airlines will make more than nothing on the available first-class space, and you will pay less than full price for an upgrade.
This unbundling of air travel, which has made flying
increasingly unpleasant over the past few years, has seemed to hit a wall. Carriers have no more necessities they can limit and then charge extra for, so they have moved on to selling “luxuries,” many of which used to be included in coach seating, for whatever price you are will- ing to pay.
How seat bidding works
Bidding for first-class seats is popular among budget air- lines such as Norwegian Air, Wow Air, and Virgin Australia, which charge extra for all amenities, though some larger
carriers like Lufthansa and Cathay Pacific also offer seat bidding.
After you complete your booking and as your travel date approaches, you will either be prompted by an email or direc- tions will be available on the air carrier’s website to place your bid for an open premium seat. Bidding for most airlines is a blind auction, so you don’t see what others are offering. How- ever, there is a bid minimum, usually around $100, so you can’t bid a penny and just hope that no one else made an offer.
A temporary child deten- tion facility, which was set up in the West Texas desert dur- ing the family separation cri- sis in June, will expand from 1,200 to 3,800 beds and stay open at least through the end of the year, even though the controversial practice of tak- ing children from their par- ents at the border has ended, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday.
“The need for the continu- ation of the operation at Tornillo is based on the num- ber of unaccompanied alien children in the care of the Of- fice of Refugee Resettlement at HHS’s Administration for Children and Families, who crossed the border alone without their parent or legal guardian. ‘Family separations’ resulting from the zero toler- ance policy ended on June 20, 2018, and are not driving this need,” HHS spokesman Ken-
neth Wolfe said.
Critics of the Trump ad-
ministration’s immigration efforts say the continuing need for the tent shelter in Tornillo, south of El Paso, is driven by policies that make it harder to place unaccompa- nied children with sponsors in the United States.
“If there is no longer an in- tent to have family separation children coming to HHS, it’s just not clear why they would be expecting such a continu- ing rise in the number of chil- dren in care,” said Mark Greenberg, who headed HHS’s Administration for Children and Families for three years during the Obama administration. He said a va- riety of Trump administration policies have been driving up the number of children re- maining in government cus- tody from about 3,000 in 2016 to more than 12,000 today.
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