Delta adds $5 to fee for bags checked at airport

ajc.com ^ | 7-21-09 | By Kelly Yamanouchi

[rawhide]

Delta Air Lines has added a $5 surcharge for paying checked baggage fees at the airport instead of online, matching moves by some other airlines.

Atlanta-based Delta already charges $15 for the first checked bag and $25 for the second checked bag on domestic flights.

But starting Aug. 4, Delta will start charging those who pay for checked bags at airport ticket counters, kiosks and curbs $20 for the first checked bag and $30 for the second checked bag, for tickets purchased July 15 or later.

The fees for paying for checked bags online remain the same.

[M203M4]

Free clue for the airlines: people like “discounts” more than they like “extra fees”, even if the price is the same in both instances.

Instead of charging extra for checked baggage, they should have a normal allotment of checked baggage (2) INCLUDED with the ticket price, but deduct a portion of the ticket price if, at booking, the customer selects that no baggage will be checked.

The fee structure is a 360, but the psychology is a 180. If you don’t want to piss customers off, the only change to the advertised price should be a downward change (excluding expected additions like taxes and shipping where applicable).

I understand the airlines are trying to game the results of comparison shopping websites (Travelociy, Expedia, Orbitz, etc), but even the rhetorical ‘Internet Grandma’ tends to catch on fast - after going through the first stage of booking a ticket, getting hit with extra fees, and then abandoning the transaction before the cc stage to see if the other guys pull the same trick.

[chiefqc]

Must be getting close to the time when the airlines cry poor mouth and want the tax payers to bail them out AGAIN.

Meanwhile the tax payers are getting taxed more, losing their jobs and also losing their homes.

[rawhide]

That is smart what you wrote and I agree with it. You ought to send that to Delta.

[bagman]

Many airlines seem to have a very strange business model these days - they want to make the use of their services as unpleasant as possible. I don’t get it.

[dalereed]

Either pay for bags or don’t take them, commercial cargo pays more for the space/weight than passangers bags.

[DustyMoment]

Why is it that NO ONE is asking the airlines why they have not retracted the baggage check fees they imposed when fuel was $4.00/gal plus?? It’s bad enough that they are tacking these fees on and pi$$ing off the flying public, but the fact that they are still adding NEW fees when the price of gas is down is nothing more, IMO, than price gouging!!

[a fool in paradise]

Do they still sell more seats than there are on a plane?

That is a scam and it always had been.

There have to be applicable wire fraud charges for overbooking a flight.

[SJSAMPLE]

Still do, and it’s legal.

[a fool in paradise]

If you fly without luggage, you are “suspicious”.

If you carry your luggage on the flight you are put through security checks that don't even permit nail clippers or toothpaste tubes bigger than a ketchup packet.

And the airlines don't want you to have more than one carry on item.

I much prefer to drive these days. Even a 6 hour drive vs “30 minute” flight works out to the same time (when you factor in the ride to/from the airport, arriving early enough to go through security, early enough to get to the gate, wait time on the tarmac, the flight itself, and wait time for baggage to make it to the carousel).