{"id":11774,"date":"2008-02-05T08:47:08","date_gmt":"2008-02-05T15:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2008\/02\/05\/flying-light.html"},"modified":"2010-11-21T01:35:10","modified_gmt":"2010-11-21T08:35:10","slug":"flying_light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/02\/05\/flying_light.html","title":{"rendered":"Flying light"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just … swell …<\/a><\/p>\n

United Airlines will begin charging some passengers $50 to check a second piece of luggage on domestic round-trip flights, becoming the first big carrier to impose a fee for a service that has long been included in the price of a ticket.<\/p>\n

As of late yesterday, no other major carrier had followed United, but some analysts said that if the move didn’t generate significant resistance from consumers, the traditional two-free-bags rule was likely to go the way of other services such as free meals and pillows.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Meanwhile, the TSA, explicitly and implicitly, keeps encouraging folks to check more, carry-on less.<\/p>\n

United, the nation’s second-largest carrier, said the new fee would help offset a 49 percent increase in jet fuel prices over the past 12 months. It also noted that only about 25 percent of its passengers usually checked a second bag.<\/p>\n

Still, the fee – $25 for the second bag each way – is expected to generate more than $100 million in additional revenue. In addition, United expects fewer checked bags as a result of the fee, which could lower fuel expenses.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For most business travelers, this will not make much of a difference, since they tend to travel light as possible, carry-on when they can, etc. Where this will really hit is families.<\/p>\n

The policy doesn’t apply to international flights, passengers buying higher-priced refundable tickets or to those who have “elite” status with the airline’s frequent-flier programs. Those passengers still will be able to check two bags for free.<\/p>\n

But for families on a budget who have purchased discounted, nonrefundable tickets, the fees are likely to be hefty, since many typically check two bags per family member.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And here’s where it really gets personal, because I didn’t just-quite fly enough miles on United last year to maintain my Premier status. When I went to check the prices to buy the extra miles to make it (since getting in the short line, having easier access to Economy Plus seats, etc., is actually kinda nice), the price seemed extortionate.<\/p>\n

This won’t change that — much — even if every flight we take we carried on extra bags — but it does make it more tempting.<\/p>\n

Feh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just … swell …  United Airlines will begin charging some passengers $50 to check a second piece of luggage on domestic round-trip flights, becoming the first big carrier to impose…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8971,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/03\/14\/flying_the_incr.html","url_meta":{"origin":11774,"position":0},"title":"Flying the increasingly-unfriendly skies","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 14-Mar-06 5:05pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Northwest will begin charging more for aisle seats. Bankrupt Northwest this week unveiled a program called Coach Choice in which the carrier will save some preferred coach seating on the...","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27303,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/04\/02\/glad-we-got-our-cookies-when-we-did.html","url_meta":{"origin":11774,"position":1},"title":"Glad we got our cookies when we did","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 2-Apr-12 9:03pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So Frontier Airlines had been serving warm chocolate chips to all passengers as part of their longer flights (e.g., California to Denver) since their merger with Midwest Airlines (which was about the only thing from Midwest Airlines that anyone appreciated). No more.Which, I guess, is fine, except the Frontier folks\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9101,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/02\/19\/bagged.html","url_meta":{"origin":11774,"position":2},"title":"Bagged","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 19-Feb-06 8:06am","format":false,"excerpt":"Why are the overhead bins are always full of luggage? Part of it is the inconvenience of getting checked bags. Another big part is the number of checked bags that...","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","block_context":{"text":"Travel","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/travel"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9347,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/24\/board_board_boa.html","url_meta":{"origin":11774,"position":3},"title":"Board, board, board","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 24-Jul-06 10:47am","format":false,"excerpt":"Yet more mathematical analysis on the optimum way to board passengers onto planes.\u00a0 The problem I see with most of the models is that they assume that none of the...","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","block_context":{"text":"Travel","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/travel"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1376,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/01\/16\/bag_checks.html","url_meta":{"origin":11774,"position":4},"title":"Bag checks","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 16-Jan-02 9:13am","format":false,"excerpt":"Tomorrow has been dubbed \"Black Friday\" by many of the nation's airlines, as it is the day by which Congress mandated all checked luggage be somehow \"screened\" before it is...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8046,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/06\/08\/bleeding_edge.html","url_meta":{"origin":11774,"position":5},"title":"Bleeding edge","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 8-Jun-05 9:06am","format":false,"excerpt":"United is finally giving up on the bits of the DIA luggage system it has used since the airport opened in 1995. United Airlines spokesman Jeff Green says scrapping the...","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","block_context":{"text":"Travel","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/travel"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11774\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}