American to charge for all baggage: Good or bad idea?
American Airlines announced this morning that beginning June 15, they will charge a $15 fee for EVERY checked bag from their passengers. They cite the increasing fuel costs for transporting passenger’s luggage for the new charge.
Will airplane cabins become even more overloaded as more passengers bring their luggage as carry-ons instead? I can see more passengers bringing their allotment of carry-on baggage making TSA security checkpoint lines even longer as more packages and wheeled suitcases need to be screened.
On top of all this, American’s parent corporation, AMR, this morning also announced “significant reductions” to its 2008 domestic flight schedule. The say that capacity is expected to decline by 10 percent to 11 percent in the fourth quarter compared to fourth quarter 2007 levels.
Will American lose even more passengers over this new fee and schedule reductions? Given the new baggage fees, would you seek out other airlines when you need to travel?
Absolutely!! I will try and fly another airline. This is just ANOTHER fee they are charging. Lay people off, charge their customers more, and have the money line the pockets of the executives!! Good luck AA
Haaa, hang on let me get off the floor. Yeah I heard that Applebee’s is going to start charging for silverware used also. Lets see cramped seats, I am 6 ft 180lbs and can barely fit. Hmmmm no food, but hey they will sell ya some crappy sandwich or $3.00 for a .050 candy bar. Surly staff, that think they are the customer. American Airlines nice knowing ya, well maybe not. See ya don’t want to be ya, cause you wont last!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m waiting to get a bill from the PD…for posting this one paragraph.If it works for AA, it certainly would work for the PD! Hmmm is that what the PD was thinking when they posted this topic? LOL
I’m a part time professional bowler, carry anywhere from four to six balls with me on tournament trips. Packing for us is a science, we actually use our multi-ball bags as luggage, use 2 balls + clothes to keep under the 50 lb. limit, and carry two on board over-the-shoulder.
Last May, bag 1 was .5 lb over. The American clerk sassily said “that’ll be 25 dollars.” For a 1/2 lb! Two years earlier on Southwest, I had one that was 1.5 lb. over, and they waived the fee.
Back to last year. I then get to Reno and find my bag dented. When I got back, I complained to American. The CSR supervisor basically wrote the clerk was right to charge me and just said “sorry” about the dent.
I wrote back and said for $25 about 8 oz., a clerk with an attitude and indifference from the company, that I’d no longer use American Airlines.
Next month I go to Albuquerque. American and Southwest fly there. I compared rates. It wasn’t close. Southwest won hands down. Even if it was the same price, I’d fly Southwest.
Consider this. Southwest has never had a fatal accident since being launched in 1971. And yet the FAA grounded their planes two months ago for safety, which I guess is ok, preventative maintenance is a good thing.
But when is America going to wake up and just tell American “NO MORE”. It’s CEO arrogance is legendary from Arpey back to Carty.
Accomodating passengers is not what American Airlines is all about. Accomodating profits is their main objective, not that any of their current managerial money-grubbers know much about it.
In any case, it will keep more women from flying. I can’t imagine my significant other flying someplace for a three-day stay without carrying enough clothes for a month. Maybe it will help the clothing business.
Well, AA has just created a major mess for themselves and their customers. If you thought people tried to pack the kitchen sink in the overhead bins before, you haven’t seen nothing, yet! You going to be surprised/shocked by how much carry-on people are going to try and squeeze onto their flights just to save the $15. I guarantee that LATE FLIGHTS will spike with all the waiting that will go on while people try to stow their their houses on-board the aircraft before the flights can take-off. But the worst will be the TSA screenings, which will come even more of a CRAWL while the TSA agents have to check a gazillion more carry-on bags due to this change. AA, you should have thought this one through before making such a bone-headed move as this! Instead, you just should have raised the base ticket fares to recover the $15 from everyone. But now, you’ve only made a bad situation worse.
It’s time to start thinking about going by train.
The last time I flew American it was a total nightmare. My flight from St. Louis was delayed 2 hours, then 10 minutes before we were supposed to board they delayed the flight another 2 hours. Again just a few minutes before boarding the flight was delayed another 3 hours! Once on the plane we were only offered peanuts! Nice. Then upon arrival at my destination (midnight arrival that should have been 5 PM) AA did nothing but lose my luggage. When I went to customer service they simply apologized for the confusion. UNFORTUNATELY for me…I had a presentation at 8:00 AM the next morning without any clothes, toiletries or the like! Again, AA did nothing once I explained my story to them. I tried and tried to get a hold of a manager to no avail. I received nothing other than peanuts and a short, curt apology….no discount off my next ticket, no toothpaste to get me thru the night, etc. My presentation was fine, although dressed in clothes that I wore the day before, but I sure did tell my story to everyone there!! Needless to say, I have not used AA since and never will. I agree with Charles Williams, GO SOUTHWEST!!!
In a fortress-hub city like St. Louis, the alternative to _this_ airline may not be an airline at all. Amtrak has direct service to 49 cities from St. Louis: Chicago, Dallas, all the way to Los Angeles. Do trains “work” for every trip? Of course not–there are no good connections from STL for travel to Seattle or Miami. But trains are a credible option for more trips than we think.
You may not have a choice to switch airlines to avoid the fees. History shows they let one or two airlines impose a fee, then the rest jump on board. Let’s face it, the american peoples will lockstep to anything nowadays. Bush and his minions have trained them well. I know some TSA folks and you wouldn’t believe the things folks still try to take on a plane. Three foot long swords, big old macho “the two boys hang low” guns, suitcases full of banned drugs, etc. I imagine there will no longer be room for my little carry on Mario weekend bag when I next fly. The airlines are about to fold. If our economy depends on airline travel to exist, we will be accepting stuff we never thought we would because the politicos can’t even get the radar systems safe. Start losing weight folks and make room for the bags! Not likely though since I just watched a news story about the Atlanta Braves offering unlimited (from the cheaper, less healthy menu)food and beer to attract people to games. Try unlimited beer at a music venue and see how long the cops let you stay open. Canada is looking better and better…see I left you cons a perfect opening to do your thing today!