Posted on 07/01/2008 12:25:21 PM PDT by Eepsy
MIAMI (CBS) ― Savvy travelers who think they can get around an airline's new fees for checked bags by just bringing a big carry on may have to come up with a 'plan B'
American Airlines has started cracking down on the size of the bags passengers stuff into the overhead bins.
"I'm very frustrated because I travel a lot," said Corrine Celestine.
Air passengers like Celestine say they're upset that American is now scrutinizing the size of carry on bags and charging an extra fee if the bags are over the stated limit.
"It's really frustrating, the airlines are complaining about losing money, but if they keep doing this, I will try to get where I'm going without flying, I will," said Celestine.
Fellow frustrated traveler Chelsea Link agrees that something must be done.
"This morning I was on Delta, I didn't get charged for checking in two bags but when I switched over to American I was charged fifteen dollars and now if the carry on is to big they want to charge another fifteen, it's too much, too much," said Link.
American Airlines and US Airways, along with United Airlines, were the first to announce fees for a single checked bag; $15 each way. Most airlines specify that a carry on bag must be under a certain weight, generally about 40 pounds, and must meet certain size requirements. If the bag is too heavy or too large, American charges the passenger $15 to check it.
The airlines point out that the policy concerning carry on bags came from the Federal Aviation Administration, not the airline industry. American and US Airways say they add extra staff during peak flying times to make sure bulky carry on bags are checked before they are deemed a problem, thus reducing delays for all passengers.
United Airlines says they have not decided how it will handle passengers with oversized carry on bags and US Airways says they will allow passengers to check overweight, or oversized, carry bags at the gate for free.
Not everyone is against the new fees.
Traveler Catherine Coleman believes the new fees are fair.
"We all want to take more with us than we can but we need to do what's right, what's fair is fair, we have to change our habits," said Coleman.
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Not just that but the idiots negotiating with the overhead bins make deplaning a 30 minute affair rather than 5 minutes, all so THEY can save time at baggage claim.
count me in ;)
I fly at least twice a month and haven’t noticed that removing luggage from the overhead causes any delay deplaning. Methinks you exaggerate greatly.
When I last flkew on Memorial Day weekend, some guy was trying to stuff his bag in the overhead. He was doing everything he could to get it in and the overhead closed. Finally the stewardess squeezed by us all ( yumm ) and took the bag to be stored in baggage. The guy was griping but she wan’t putting up with it.
That’s exactly my point. Amtrak is TERRIFIC for people who live and travel within the Northeast corridor. But for people who don’t live in the Northeast (between Boston and Washington DC) it is completely impractical. There are very, very few trains that even pass through the station nearest to you, and when they do come it is usually at a time like 2:00 in the morning. Then it takes even longer than it would be to drive, and is more expensive than it would be to fly. For anyone who lives outside the Northeast Amtrak is generally nothing more than a curiousity one might ride just to see what it is like, but unfortunately it is far from being a convenient, affordable alternative to driving or flying. I would love to see this change though.
On the one hand, you know airlines as a group have had the bag charge idea on the books for years, just waiting for a reason to implement it. American is leading them all, but if they pull it off, all major hub airlines might eventually follow.
On the other, they really are experiencing huge cost increases due to fuel costs, and have to make the money up somewhere. This model allows them to avoid raising actual ticket prices, though with 2 bags round trip being 80 bucks, this might be argued to be deceptive in terms of overall cost to the traveler.
The Hell you say!! Someone on FR exaggerating? I don't believe it :o
bfl
I’d love to do this trip one day.
http://www.viarail.ca/trains/en_trai_toja.html
Saw a travel program on it, and I’ve been daydreaming ever since....
Beer goggles used to take that picture?
Amtrak loses whole cars.
I’m really torn on this one.
On the one hand, I oppose additional fees of any kind.
On the other hand I really, really want the airlines to enforce the carry-on size rules.
My 85 yr old MIL is flying today, she told my son who is with her that there was an extra 500 dollar charge on overweight luggage! LOL
My son told her that if that was the case, they’d only take a few things and buy new stuff when they got there.
Is that really Amtrak? Looks more like the station in Oslo (but it’s been a few years).
The nearly hour's wait before the luggage from my flight STARTED to be offloaded onto the carousel, trip before last, did it for me.
Needed a new garment bag anyway, found one perfectly sized for carry-aboard, rethought clothing/packing and it worked fine for a week-long trip (with suit for one evening).
I'll bet that was not on American or Delta, the "yumm" factor is darn near zero.
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