American Airlines just made my you-know-what list
This is ridiculous.
American is going to charge $15, ONE-WAY, to check your bag. Never mind that they just raised their ticket prices. How is a family of four supposed to fly without checking bags? I’m supposed to have everyone lug their carry-on, plus their personal bag, not to mention two car seats and a stroller, to the gate?
It would cost us $120 for our family of four, just to check our bags for a trip. Hell, I might us well just FedEx them all ahead of time. At least that way, I know they’ll get there. FedEx actually tracks your packages.
If the fuel costs are rising, then just raise the price of the ticket, again. Make everyone share the burden. It’s not like they just suddenly ran out of cargo space on all their airplanes. I’d rather know what I’m getting into ahead of time that have a bunch of fees tacked on when I get to the airport.
And the worst part? If your bag doesn’t arrive with your plane, you don’t get your money back. That’s just poor customer service - I pay you for a service, you don’t provide it, and I have no recourse. If you’re gonna charge me money to check my bag, then it had better get there. Oh right, this isn’t a customer-service improvement measure - they’re not doing a better job, now that they’re tacking on fees, to ensure more consistent service and satisfaction. They’re just watching their asses.
And because there’s so much room in the overhead bins in the cabin, this is SUCH a great idea. They should then have a rule that if the space under your seat is empty, you aren’t allowed to stow your bag in the overhead bin. People are complete hogs when it comes to getting on and off the airplane - they MUST be the first ones on so they get good overhead space and first dibs on the armrests, and they MUST be the first ones off so they can knock you in the head with their bag in their rush to get off the plane.
I appreciate the speed with which flying gets me to where I’m going, but man, I really hate flying.
This is why we’re driving next time we go to Texas.
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:17 am
don’t you miss the days when travel was an adventure rather than a hassle?
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:19 am
Yeah, this is ridiculous. I don’t understand why they don’t raise the price and itemize the bill…
I could see this coming, though, when they started charging for meals in-flight.
They might as well just make the airline ticket free and then charge you for individual items every step of the way.
When you check in, you pay the person checking you in for checking you in. When you go through the security check, you give a little security-check fee to all the security guards. When you board the plane, you pay a customer-service fee to the flight attendants. When on your way to your seat, you pay a fee to the pilot for flying the plane, and she will also collect the fuel and plane maintenance charge for the plane itself. Before you’re allowed to pick up your baggage, you pay a fee to the baggage handlers, and then as you leave the airport, you pay a fee to cover everything else (airport operations, website upkeep, advertising costs, HR, etc.).
May 25th, 2008 at 8:11 am
I hadn’t even thought of all of this. It’s going to get expensive!
May 25th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
just be glad you don’t fly frontier. You’d have to pay for those bags, AND even higher charges to check your antlers.
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_9361620