From our forums: charging $15 for the FIRST bag? Get used to it, babe

by Christopher Elliott on May 21, 2008

Word that American Airlines will charge $15 for the first checked bag has sparked quite a debate on our forums.

Our sister blog, Elliott, has details on the fee. (Full disclosure: I’m the author of that blog.)

And our forums have the reaction, which, generally speaking, is outrage. “And so begins the great carry-on luggage meltdown of 2008,” says one traveler. “It’s going to be like flying in a packed U-Haul trailer with a herd of Michelin men since people will be wearing multiple sets of clothing so they don’t have to pay.”

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Tagged as: American Airlines, Fee, luggage

  • Colleen Brownlee

    Wow–all the additional fees due to the cost of Jet engine fuel–
    I have a very fair suggestion, although it would be an affront to some-
    My thoughts are everyone gets thier ticket at a “Normal Price” which would include say, 200 -250 lbs of weight, the corker is that the weight would be the ticket holder plus the ticket holders luggage and carry on–let’s be realistic. Curretnly all the fuel charges are beign paid out by everyone, even those who weigh 140 lbs and take only 50 lbs combined of luggage. I had to remove 4.2 lbs of weight from one bag in order to address my ‘overwieght bag charge” of $50.00 of course i did that, but in the end it whent into my carry on and the net effect on wieght of the aircraft was exactly the same. That bieng said, some one in front of me who wieghed much more than I and not as tall as I am, checked in with no hassle., In that instance my bad, however, a portion of my ticket actually paid for the extra wieght they carried by choice on their body….Meow meow, or reality is not always pleasant.

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