Airlines blow, but we made them that way by choosing on nothing other than price. In aggregate the industry is going to make ~2% profit margin this year - so on your $400 ticket, they’re making 8 bucks. The “gouging” is merely a shifting of cost in response to competition and the Internet driving fares to the absolute rock bottom.
In terms of service, we will continue to get what we pay for.
In related news, airlines began offering new Super-Econo class seating in overhead bins.
Seriously, didn’t there used to be laws against price-fixing and collusion? Those weren’t actually repealed yet, were they?
Yeah WTF? We aren’t talking about Ryanair here - whom I have seen aggressively persecute foreigners and others they think won’t push back about “oversize” baggage.
I imagine something like: charging for checked bags means more carry-on, means less room in the bins if the carry-on bags have to go in sideways. So: guarantee that the carry-on bags have to go in perpendicular.
Personally, I’d love it if the “we are premium” folks who seem to make up 40% or more of the plane’s passenger manifest that get to get on early and get all the overhead bin space was required to actually put that backpack or whatever in the under-seat storage. I’ve seen way too many people get on, put both carry-on items overhead, and leave no space for later travelers.
I’m just happy I bought the smaller rollerboard when given the choice - I have a rick steves’ rolling carry-on, which is only 14x21 or so. http://travelstore.ricksteves.com/catalog/index.cfm?fuseaction=product&theParentId=8&id=527
There are some things I always carry on - clothing to adapt to the temperature of the plane, reading material, and stuff I really don’t want to get lost or damaged, like computers, medicines, and some musical instruments.
Flying was a pleasure in the 60s, okay in the 70s, tolerable in the 80s, not all that bad in the 90s, unpleasant in the 00s and now something to be dreaded, hated. The only thing the airlines are not limiting is the amount of taxpayer subsidy they get via their bribes to lobbyists and regulators and congressliars.
So, isn’t it about time someone starts working on this?
Oh goody, you’re going to turn an airline policy into an excuse to sexually harass a person who had nothing to do with instituting it. Let us know how the cavity search goes.
I hate flying. I hate the security foolishness (and it IS foolishness, we are no safer today than we were 13 years ago) and I hate the feeling that I am imposing on the airlines. Make my fare more. It’s okay, but please don’t make me feel like I’m a criminal or in some way just there to make your life difficult. I hired you to simplify my travel. And since airlines CAN’T seen to do this, I started driving everywhere in 2009. With the exception of international travel, I just spend the time and enjoy road trips. We live in the central us, have been logged more than 30,000 miles and made some terrific memories and friends. Personally, I’m glad I can afford the cost and the time and feel for the millions who can’t.
At least they are doing something about the perverse incentive they build to persuade everyone to carry on as much as possible (b/c of check bag fees) which actually slows boarding and makes things generally less pleasant for everyone. Of course, the right solution would have been to just charge the same fee per bag regardless of checked or carry-on. Or even better, charge more for carry-on bags.
Even over the oceans?
Airline Company Fuckery
Absolutely, I had to travel by air recently (time limitations with work, work conference, and interstate travel), and it was an almost surreal experience. I flew USAir, and I’d estimate that 2/3 of the passengers were some sort of gemstone or precious metal labeled preferred customer grouping, or holders of special branded credit cards and whatnot.
Luckily, I tend to travel with a roller case in cargo, and a backpack that fits under the seat as a carry on. There were people with largish roller cases as their one carry on, and another of the exact same size as their allowed “personal bag”. The volume of those two containers was larger than my case in cargo.
The joke was on them though as on both legs of my trip, people trying this scam ended up having to gate check their carryons.
I’m all for it. On my last flight I spent 5 hours with my feet squished against my bag on the floor because the bins were full of everyone else’s huge bags.
The last few times I’ve traveled, I’ve gate-checked as well. I’ve not been charged a fee. My new strategy is to cost the airlines as much possible in enforcing their ridiculous baggage policy, and take advantage of every loophole possible. If everyone hate checked* for every flight, it’d be a great way to protest. Of course, airlines would respond with fees, but at least for awhile it would cost them both time and money.
The only real cure for all this is transparency. The existing websites for airfares only show one thing; price of the ticket. If they included in that figure things like cost for checking one bag, the cost of meal, the cost of in-flight entertainment, wifi, and “seat upgrades” for sitting anywhere but a middle seat, maybe airlines would start competing a little more to reduce those charges. Also, including information about legroom, on time/delay percentages, overall quality of service, again there at least might be some competition. Otherwise it’s all about price and it’s a race to the bottom.
Wait.
My wife traveled domestically two weeks ago with American. She emailed to get the allowed sizes, and got these same exact measurements–
14x9x22
For what’s worth (my wife often emails to check these things) she also has an email from 2010:
Continental, 14x9x22.
And USAir, in 2013, also domestic:
14x9x22
This doesn’t really seem to be a new thing. Maybe not a thing at all.
It would be nice to know what American, Delta and United supposedly allowed previously.
I think it’s more that they’re cracking down on a policy which has been in place for some time but until recently was applied with great leniency.
I’ve only paid attention to the United changes, what I think is going on is that some bins are bigger, some are smaller, they are declaring the maximum acceptable size to be the bag that will fit on all mainline airplanes. In the past if you were on a plane with smaller bins and someone brought a bag that only worked properly on a bigger bin they end up taking twice as much space in the bins. I’m glad the airline is cracking down on that but I don’t like the way they did it.
What I think would have been much better is if a bag is in sideways (other than in a few spots where the bins are smaller than normal) it’s automatically gate-checked with fee even if the passenger normally wouldn’t pay for checking a bag. Put a cost on failure, the abuse will stop.
The article misses the far more obnoxious part of the United change–the size limits for a personal item. Very few laptop bags can meet them. I believe I understand where they are coming from–some of their planes (originally Continental planes) have entertainment-system boxes under the seats and legs that do not evenly divide the available space–one space that easily accepts my laptop bag (I carry a big laptop, it’s at the old limit of personal items) and the space next door that wouldn’t take my wife’s far smaller bag.
Our next 2000 mile vacation is by car.
My family did that 2 summers ago. It was fun. Not sure if it was any more or less expensive but we got to see parts of the states we had not seen yet and had a good time.
I’d feel a lot worse if I didn’t have to worry about fitting my tiny backpack into overhead bins crammed full of gigantic suitcases on almost every flight.
Granted, this is part of the natural progression after airlines started charging money for checked baggage (I’d like to know the details about why that happened), but I don’t have a lot of sympathy for people whining about the closing of a loophole, which should not have existed from the start.
