American Airlines has just announced that it will begin charging a $15 fee for the first checked bag starting June 15. The airline also said that it would raise fees for things like “reservation help” and “oversized bags.”
CEO Gerard “$15 Fee For Knowing My Middle Name” Arpey said:
“The airline industry as it is constituted today was not built to withstand oil prices at $125 a barrel, and certainly not when record fuel expenses are coupled with a weak U.S. economy,” AMR Chairman and CEO Gerard Arpey said in a statement. “Our company and industry simply cannot afford to sit by hoping for industry and market conditions to improve.”
Well, damn.
American to begin charging for first checked bag [AP]
American Airlines to trim schedule, boost baggage fees [Dallas Morning News] (Thanks, Travis!)
(Photo: Zonaphoto )
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@basket548: Thats the spirit… let the country goto hell, But as long as you have a fund with companies that are run by greedy bastards (oil company CEOs) you are all set !! whooo hooo !
“Record profits have already been spurring more development of harder to reach oil,” as opposed to researching alternatives since oil is sooo profitable and what is their incentive to stop??? schmuck
@rellog: ditto… put the ceo’s behind bars for crippling this country’s economy
@basket548: You’re still having trouble reading my post, so I’ll re-iterate it here:
The STUPID fees are:
- Fees to book a ticket. Their business does not run without people booking tickets.
- “Fuel Surcharge”. Their business does not run without fuel; the cost of fuel should be included in the fare.
- Baggage fees (especially for one bag). I’m sorry but just because you don’t check check bags doesn’t mean that others should pay. The concept of getting leisure travelers with a reasonable amount of luggage to their vacation destination has been a basic premise of air travel for decades.
Basically any fee that is an inherent component of the airline running their business with customers is stupid.
Fine, they want to charge me for a meal – whatever, food costs money. And checking bags at the curb? HAH! Guess who’s complaining about that fee! Not the customers, that’s for sure. I could care less about that one. It’s the skycaps, who used to take home as much money per year as pilots, and now find their tips are affected by another undisclosed fee.
To be quite honest, the airlines could be smart about fees. There are times I would pay cold, hard cash to skip to the VIP security line even though I’m flying coach. There are times I would pay extra to be on a flight that turns off the cabin lights as soon as the plane reaches cruising over O’Hare and doesn’t turn them back on until they are right on top of Heathrow. If the airlines could get their heads out of their butts and figure out how to offer more value, they could earn a fortune.
Just call it a fuel charge for goodness sake.Don’t disguise it,don’t pretend it’s something else just call it for what it is-a fuel charge,a we want to make a profit charge.Baggage charge my butt.
What kills me you wind up eating that fee even if you don’t check a bag for now at the destination you’ll wind up buying the stuff you could’ve packed in the past.And when you go back your faced with the same decision;do I leave this stuff,throw it out,give it away or pay the bag fee?.
@humphrmi:
I can read your post, just didn’t know what you meant by stupid fees, and I made a poor assumption by thinking that you meant all fees. Thanks for spelling them out. I think that the only thing that the airlines are claiming is inherent in their business is getting a person from A to B. They’re definitely moving toward a model of charging for everything else, ‘basic premises’ of air travel be damned.
I agree that consumers have been led to expect a certain product for booking a ticket, and now we have to modify our expectations. However, until people start realizing that they need to factor in all costs when searching for flights online, the airlines want the ‘fare’ to be as low as possible.
Do any airlines even add a fuel surcharge? I’ve never seen one, but fuel prices have been the stimulus for several recent rounds of price increases.
Great. I don’t see why I should subsidize those who travel with bags when I never do it.
Thinking about it more and more, I’m not all that opposed to these kinds of fees but I think they’re a bit steep in themselves. $15 for 1 checked bag? Where did that number come from? Would people object so much if it was $5?
I’m sorry to say I worked for AA for 7 years. What a crooked company. It’s pretty bad that a common aircraft fueler can work his way up to become a managing director of aircraft maintenance not based on skill, but his sucking ass abilities. Mark Romanelli and Troy Sokolowski both are simple foul mouthed losers who eventualy screwed up and got what they desivered….fired for embezzelment. But a company that values ass kissing over actual skills…can only go one direction, crashing down like the planes they maintain.
Has anyone mentioned that these fees are per flight? So you can plan to double them for round trip…
@RandomHookup: No you got it wrong. You have to buy the token from an automatic machine at the terminal. There is a $5 surcharge from buying it from a flight attendant (even if the machine is out of order). [Thanks Septa for that idea!]
@Franklin Comes Alive!:
Bingo. Here’s the Reader’s Digest version.
The following fees will increase effective Wednesday, May 21st:
* Oversized bags – changing from $100 to $150
* Domestic Ticket Change Fee – From $100 to $150
* International Ticket Change Fee – from $100 – $200 to $150 -
$250
* Reservations Service Fee – from $15 to $20
* AAdvantage Award Ticket Fee – from $15 to $20
* External Reservation Handling fee – from $15 to $20
* Airport Service Fee – from $20 to $30
* Travel Center Service Fee – from $20 to $30
* Pet In Cabin Fee – from $80 to $100
* Checked Pet Fee – from $100 to $150
* Unaccompanied Minor Fee – from $75 to $100