Foo - American Airlines is charging $15 for the 1st bag

WTF? They're charging $15 for the first checked luggage, and $25 for the second one. Hello, way to lose your customer base. I don't think people will like paying $40 to bring in stuff they need. :mad:

Maybe you can get a discount for flying nude?
You could argue that the clothes have a weight and therefore require more fuel to carry. You are saving them fuel $'s by flying lighter. :lol:

Flying is a privilege for passengers and a business for the airlines.

Fuel costs for the airlines have gone through the roof. Baggage is extra weight that when added up equals less miles per gallon.

If AA wants to attempt to offset that cost with a per checked item fee, that is their business prerogative. If it works, great, if they lose business because of it, they will roll it back and just raise rates $15 across the board, anyway, thus making all passengers pay this charge regardless of whether they have a bag to check or if they only have a backpack to bring with them onboard.

The big problem is going to be people trying to bring stuff onboard that is too big for the overhead bins because they are too cheap to pony up the $15, despite the fact they are traveling via airplane.

Don't like it? Here you go (http://www.expedia.com). Consumers know how to vote with their wallets. It's business. And AA are treating it as such.

AA is doing this to try and stay out of Bankruptcy, which they will end up in anyway. There maybe times you could ship your luggage cheaper, which is interesting since AA carries parcels for the US Post Office.

They need to start charging based on BMI.

Discounts for those with < = 5% body fat

So now we can look forward to everyone pushing the limit on carry on baggage even more than they have in the past... I already feel like reminding about 20 percent of the passengers that the airlines will let them check bags so they don't have to drag their crap equivalent to their body weight through the terminal.

I have always thought that they should limit to one small carry on, and make people check bags, limit the time at the gate, streamline security and that way manage to increase on time performance and customer satisfaction... but customer satisfaction seems to be at the bottom of any airline's list.

WTF? They're charging $15 for the first checked luggage, and $25 for the second one. Hello, way to lose your customer base. I don't think people will like paying $40 to bring in stuff they need. :mad:...and if you try to fly without luggage, prepare to get probed like there's no tomorrow!

"Oh, flying is so convenient!" :rolleyes:

WTF? They're charging $15 for the first checked luggage, and $25 for the second one. Hello, way to lose your customer base. I don't think people will like paying $40 to bring in stuff they need. :mad:

$40 each way. And no toothpaste in your carry-on! Actually this will make the Lord of the Flies overhead bin space wars a lot more exciting.

Actually this will make the Lord of the Flies overhead bin space wars a lot more exciting.

Indeed!!! Just what we need- more boarding and deplaning excitement in the cabin :notamused:. Amtrak's looking better and better.

$15 a bag is a pretty good deal.


Wait, what were we talking about?

$15 a bag is a pretty good deal.


Wait, what were we talking about?

:roflmao2:

WTF? They're charging $15 for the first checked luggage, and $25 for the second one. Hello, way to lose your customer base. I don't think people will like paying $40 to bring in stuff they need. :mad:


What's wrong with paying for the service that you use? ARe you some kind of socialist?

Flying is a privilege for passengers and a business for the airlines.

Flying is a business for passengers too. They play the role of the "customer".

What's wrong with paying for the service that you use? ARe you some kind of socialist?

'Cause they used to loose my luggage for free.

Flying is a business for passengers too. They play the role of the "customer".

Right. And there is nowhere that says they have the right to free checked baggage.

As I stated, consumers vote with their wallets. If it adversely affects AA, then the policy will change and the cost will be absorbed across the board in higher fares, even to those who are not checking any baggage.

Customers will have to get used to very expensive flying if jet fuel remains as high as it is or goes even higher. A business like AA will not stay in business if it loses money by appeasing customers who think everything should be gratis after the ticket is purchased at a low price.

The super low fares of the 1990s are gone, unfortunately. Flying is going to be an expensive luxury going forward. At least until we find magic beans that can fuel the jets....

I know people who rather be in jail than fly. Thankfully I've not seen the inside of the city cooler, but I know that flying is probably the most miserable experience one can have, and airlines are doing their absolute best to provide absymal service and nickle and dime people to death.

The second someone starts an airline that treats people like customers, not prisoners, can go to most of the US, and has a reasonable price, is the second that every other airline is going to go under.

The second airlines stop losing luggage, they can then morally justify charging for the bags.

I think, as it is, most of them are overpriced for the services they could be providing. I was delayed three days past Xmas a number of years ago by US Airways, they gave me a $200 voucher for a ticket as compensation (their workers went on strike, causing the delay), saying they couldn't afford much and were on the verge of bankruptcy. They said the strike was out of their control (riiiiiiiight). The voucher was only redeemable in person at the US Airways kiosk...the closest of which is in a city 2 hours away.

Three years later they tried to buy Delta. WTF?

Why is it that euro-style discount airlines can't take hold in North America? (you know, $10 flights RyanAir-style) (and I know they are stingy w/ luggage but at least at those prices you don't mind so much fed-exing extra stuff to your destination)

I know people who rather be in jail than fly. Thankfully I've not seen the inside of the city cooler, but I know that flying is probably the most miserable experience one can have, and airlines are doing their absolute best to provide absymal service and nickle and dime people to death.
I am getting to be one of those people.
I've been shipping my cameras for a while now. No way do I trust them to the airline industry.


The second someone starts an airline that treats people like customers, not prisoners, can go to most of the US, and has a reasonable price, is the second that every other airline is going to go under.

It's called British Air. They are civilized.

I love flying emirates.

Them and SW fail.

What's interesting is that employers will probably not pay for this since it is not part of the ticket itself, a controllable expense. I'm fascinated by inane tactics that serve to further fleece the traveling worker.

*begin rant*
First it's $5 chips on board. Earlier in the week I paid $18 at the airport for one burger and fries (Las Vegas). Then it was WiFi $19.99 per day. Then it was six cab rides each at around $17 to go a mile or less. Then it was the $6 surcharge on the $100 I had to get out of the cash machine to pay for the bloody taxis.

I understand that many of the people traveling are doing so on their dime and on low cost fares; however, there are many of us that wind up in cities where the per diem just barely covers it and certainly doesn't cover the exhaustion you get when you return with jet lag!

I'm thinking we begin carting off airline parts and sell 'em on ebay to defray business costs.
*end rant*

Flying is a complete joke anyways these days. Have you seen what people try to bring on as "carry on"?

AA is expensive as all hell off the bat, I can fly for like nearly half the price, and get two bags checked for free on other airlines.

On the radio this morning I heard a good line...

On "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me"

It was something like:

The next charge will be at the destination airport to get off the plane.

As I was driving home from the store this morning I did wonder...

What will they do when almost everyone on the plane starts bringing two carry on bags of the maximum allowable size plus many with detachable wheels (there will obviously not be enough room on the plane) and then they have to do their plane side checking?

I really think this is a policy destined for failure.

Paying airfares that would be a money-losing proposition for airlines is right up there with cheap gas as one of the self-perceived God-given rights of many Americans...