Ridiculous
Airlines charging for a second bag was bad enough, though perhaps understandable given current economic conditions.
But now American Airlines is charging $15 for the first bag checked?
This marks the first time an airline has charged passengers for bringing a suitcase.
The entire point of an airline's existence is to fly people from Point A to Point B and back again. Very often passengers are going to be staying at Point B a while and need more luggage than they can stow in an overhead compartment.
Charging "extra" for such a basic service, handling a single suitcase per passenger, is the height of absurdity.
posted by Laura @ 6:15 PM
4 Comments:
This is why we don't fly American. Delta is going down the tubes too. I think we should all take the train!!!
Terri
I'm really surprised they are doing this for checked baggage, not carry-on. You know what's going to happen...people are going to carry more on to the plane with them. This will mean more crowded storage bins and people arguing with flight attendants about their carry-ons. And what if they run out of room and take somebody's bag and put it in the tarmac for the ground crew to put in the cargo bay...since the passenger tried to carry it on, will he or she be charged in this situation? If yes, more fights; if no, people will use this as a sneak around the rule. (I'm up late, so this might be complete fuzz-talk! Sorry.)
Dumb rule!!!!
Missy http://missyisms.typepad.com
I agree with Missy, mostly. My first reaction was also to shake my head, but I do see the logic in their decision. Why charge ALL passengers more, when some are taking less onto the airplane (via the cargo area) than others? But Missy points out the potential problem.
Next up... the airlines will charge you extra for NOT showing "Battlefield Earth" as the in-flight movie, and even more for not showing the crash sequences from the TV show "Lost". -Ken
"the airlines will charge you extra for NOT showing 'Battlefield Earth' as the in-flight movie"
This reminds me about the time we were flying Continental home from Orlando a couple years ago...the in-flight headphone system wasn't working so the crew decided to show the disaster film THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW to the entire plane, with the audio over the plane's loudspeakers. Although I tried to distract my younger kids (who were then 7 and 10), by the time wolves were attacking people, they were terrified. We complained to the stewardess about everyone -- especially little children -- being forced to watch/listen to a PG-13 movie, and they finally turned it off about 2/3 through the film. Even if they had edited it for airline showing, it was waaaaay too intense for little kids.
I would have gladly paid a couple bucks to end the torture, so your theory, sadly, may not be that far from reality!!
PS We formally complained to Continental about the crew's bad judgment -- they basically shrugged their corporate shoulders.
Best wishes,
Laura
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