I'm willing to bet that won't last long. People will cram so much crap into their carryons and everyone will have the max number of carryons, thereby making the boarding process even more lengthy/chaotic. The first hint the execs get that they are losing their on time bonus checks because of all the boarding delays and the charge will be gone.

 

Why can't they just charge a fuel surcharge? That is what it is. More money is more money to the customer. You fly from point A to point B and it costs $229 say for the ticket. Then you pay a fuel surcharge that fluxuates based on the current market price at the time the ticket is sold. $84.56 say for that day. Your ticket costs the sum of the two if you want to go.

Thats the deal we have with our cars. If you carry a duffel bag in the back seat of your car, do you really notice a difference in milage? Sure it reduces, but c'mon. It costs more because you are paying more for the gas, not because the bag is there. You pay a fuel surcharge to drive your car.

You want a lobster from that nice restaurant? - you pay market price. Not an extra $3 if you want a fork.

Idiots!

 

Airlines in Europe have been charging for bags for years.

 

Is it Prater? Sounds like a spot-on description.

 

They also limit your carryon to a whopping 7 kilos (approx 15 lbs). Usually their overheads are almost completely empty.

 

Couldn't be, this guy was actually working around an aircraft...

 

I bet the bad press is going to hurt them alot more than people angry at paying for ALL bags checked... Fuel surcharge would have been a better business move...

 

I saw Prater at the Alaska shareholder meeting a few days ago. He's a bit chunky, but not Buddha-like fat. Don't know if he really does any work, but he made it clear that he's putting ALPA's strike fund behind the Alaska pilot group. It brought tears to my eyes. Ayer looked a bit stunned. Anyway, thread drift, I know.


The following is an excerpt from a Tripso article on charging for bags.

My predictions:

- This luggage fee is a step too far. AA will eventually have to back off of the fee.
- Problems with controlling carry-on luggage will increase exponentially.
- Delays at TSA checkpoints will increase as more passengers bring more baggage through the inspection points.
- Delays at the boarding gates dealing with luggage arguments will further delay AA flights to less than a 50 percent on-time rating.
- Other airlines will adopt a wait-and-see approach to this dramatic fee increase, forcing AA to rethink their fee structure.
- The Transportation Department will force airlines to disclose these fees in their advertisements. This will allow other airlines to simply raise airfares without raising the total advertised cost of the trip. AA will eventually (perhaps before June 15) roll this fee into their airfares.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24794018/

 

I dont think everyone thinks this....I for one think United is in the most trouble right now.

 

I just read a story where Frontier raised the cost of transporting ANTLERS (you know, deer and elk headpieces) from $75 to $100 bucks. And no, this is not a joke.

That's just going too far!