Thursday, March 4, 2010

can more airline fees even be possible? YES

so far we have seen baggage fees start with second bag, go to first bag and then increase again in cost, we talked about toilet cost, we pay for blanket, pillows, water, food, preferential seats. Now there are 2 new fees on the horizon coming soon to an airline near you
1. carry on bag fee
2. over sized person fee

So, lets discuss.
People are carrying on more to avoid checked bag fees. So, airlines now are enforcing the carry on size limit and if they check it at gate, they will extort you for the 3rd bag fee right there, which could be as much as $100. (assuming of course you have checked two already), otherwise it will be $35 for first checked bag. For those that try to get a garment bag or mdium roller board on, I agree. There are and always have been size limits but what if overhead and under seats are full and your proper sized bag doesn't fit. Do you have to pay? The UK & Canada tried to solve this by limiting 1 carry on per person, then none carry on's allowed. I think that will be next or airline to ensure they get ALL their baggage revenue.
Over sized person fee; it has been in the news about how airline deal with "fat" people... demanding they pay for an extra seat but that is not fair, is it? The cost of ticket x2? Europe charges the equivalent of extra leg room fee for over sized people and I suggest that is a more reasonable strategy. But lets get more basic..... airline seats are 17" wide and vary by 3". 60% of the populations exceeds a 34" waste. Do people not realize the human race is just growing; think of average size civil war or revolutionary war soldier; 6" shorter than our average size today. Let's talk physics; airline manufacturer's have to design planes that simply have wider seats. Also in this discussion, lets recognize the very tall people. Are they oversize too and need two seats for their knees/legs. If so, will they pay just like "fat" people? You would argue that a tall person cant help being tall but a fat person can loose weight, however that is not always a winning argument. It is not that simple. Our body sizes are/have changed, even in the last 50 years. Airlines are trying to make money, I get it..... but we need prolicies, procedures, rules & regulations that are sensative & realistic.

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