As someone who has flown a lot for business since before there were checked bag policies, one thing people forget is that they were originally justified (or so the airlines claimed) by the increased fuel costs at the time. I recall reading articles where airlines claimed that once fuel prices came back down the fees would go away. I told a friend at the time that I’d cut off my right arm if that ever happened. Of course flying became immediately worse not only with the fee payments (of which I assume $0 go to improving the handling of checked bags) but also with the stampede to board to avoid losing out on overhead space, gamesmanship about bag sizes, etc.
2 Likes
