Just Viral News: Airlines Caught Jacking Up The Prices On Flights Out Of Hurricane Irma’s Path!

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Seriously, WTF, airlines??

It seems once again, as natural disasters bring out the best in us, they also bring out the worst.

Hurricane Irma has strengthened to a Category 5 storm and appears to be headed straight for Puerto Rico and then Florida. Mandatory evacuations have been ordered in Miami as Governor Rick Scott has declared a state of emergency.

But some wishing to evacuate over the past couple days have noticed the prices for flights out of Miami SOARING after news of the storm's path:

Shame on you @delta. Jacking from $547 to over $3200 for people trying to evacute responsibly? #IrmaHurricane http://pic.twitter.com/O2nfPHQUAh
— Leigh (@LeighDow) September 5, 2017

airlines continue to hit hard, even when hurricanes do, by jacking up the prices to escape the islands during Irma http://pic.twitter.com/Ow8bSYQF9K
— Megs☀️ (@Hennyy_Bee) September 3, 2017

So there have been occasions when I have been forced to pay a little bit extra due to poor planning on my part or last minute changes. BUT where the hell does the buck stop?! 1700 for an economy ticket to NYC from miami?!!! That's straight up highway robbery. We've been so distracted by the news cycle these past few weeks and fixated on the governments attempts to disenfranchise or straight up deport hundreds of housands of POC basically for "stealing" from us red blooded Americans. And before you come at me for drawing parallels between two very different issues; my point is that we are being distracted from real issues that affect us in our daily lives with ones that will literally not directly impact you in any meaningful way as to cause harm. Meanwhile you got folks like @americanair over here taking advantage of the ignorance and capitalizing off of what could be a devastating situation for the state I live in. Last week I read numerous articles bemoaning the price gouging at Houston area Best Buy's and hotels and gas stations. But when it comes to the airports nobody says a thing; it's just an accepted practice at this point, but ask yourself why? Why during times of emergency do basic services such as travel suddenly experience 50% spikes and higher? And better yet ask yourself why doesn't the government step in and cap these things? I mean does jet fuel cost that much more than it did last Thursday? Did New York City suddenly move 1000 miles further from Miami? No all that changed was demand, and I'm all for a free market but not when it puts out of reach of thousands the ability to reasonably and fairly evacuate. Maybe it's something that FEMA could step in and help regulate if its funding wasn't about to be slashed by nearly a billion dollars. 🤔🤔🤔A post shared by William Gaskins (@thereal_billyg) on Sep 5, 2017 at 1:24pm PDT

We were able to verify the increase in price:

Raising the prices exorbitantly on those in need is gouging. It's cruel, disgusting, and illegal.

Shame on you, airlines!

[Image via Twitter/The Weather Channel.]