United Airlines to charge for Extra Luggage.

dong20

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Other airlines have tried this and it failed. After said failure, the airlines reversed the decision.

This will be no different.

Yes, BA started with up to £240 per extra bag, they backed down to £75 which is still outrageous. But then, BA management are fascists.
 

dong20

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...I swear some pax check their common sense curb-side along with their checked luggage when they arrive to the airport. :rolleyes:

Much of the time I think it doesn't even get so far as the airport.

Ryanair is a budget carrier that charges for all checked baggage and operated a 'relaxed' carry on allowance. However, it's simultaneously amusing and terrifying to watch some dope with a bag the size of a house whining that he'll "squeeze it in there, somehow".

Ryanair operate B737s - OK, but not conspicuously well endowed with bin space.:rolleyes:
 

DC_DEEP

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Airlines can and do re-assign seats for operational reasons, and I'd suspect that these would override even paid for personal assignments. I'd be looking at the fine print...though suing for breach of contract over 15$ seems petty, assuming a 'contract' even existed. A letter of complaint may extract an ex-gratia payment although, thinking about it, with an airline, probably not.:rolleyes:

You may be able to smile sweetly at the ground staff and politely ask them to change your seat assigment(s) (say you're a nervous flyer prone to projectile vomiting unless you're with someone you know and trust:cool:), if the flight is not full (which it possibly is, hence the change) you may get lucky. It's worked for me once or twice and the threats of vomiting weren't even necessary.:smile:
Unless I was typing in my sleep, I don't think I mentioned suing them.

I worked for a major airline for years, in a reservation sales call center. That's one of the reasons I know when they are trying to bullshit me when I call. I do certainly intend to write a letter of complaint - not necessarily to get any ex-gratia payment, but just to let management know that their system is being poorly handled. I got the seat assignment issued cleared up over the phone (after the supervisor told me I couldn't... he later admitted, yes, it could be handled then and there.)

For the airlines that do NOT charge for seat assignments, there is no implied contract that they are required to honor. If they charge for a service, and you pay for that service, they are required by law to honor that purchase. (Of course, that would not apply to something like denied boarding due to drunkenness, or anything like that.)
 

DC_DEEP

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No, you didn't that was me typing out loud! I can see how you could read it the way you did. Sorry, I didn't mean to suggest you had and I thought it was petty - though if you had I would.:smile:
whew for a minute there, I thought I was in the twilight zone!

Still, it is illegal, at least in this country, for a corporation (or anyone else, for that matter) to offer for sale, a product or service, accept money for that product or service, then fail to provide that product or service.
 

dong20

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whew for a minute there, I thought I was in the twilight zone!

I've never been there, but the brochure looks nice.

Still, it is illegal, at least in this country, for a corporation (or anyone else, for that matter) to offer for sale, a product or service, accept money for that product or service, then fail to provide that product or service.

It is here, pretty much. One cannot be made to pay for a product or service one hasn't received. That's the theory anyway.:rolleyes:

As a slight aside I don't know if this is the case in the US but in the UK if one cancels one of those non refundable air tickets, the tax paid (APD) is refundable, in part on the above grounds and in part due to the way HMRC collects duty.

It's worth doing as on, for example, a flight from London to New York this can run to £150. I checked on a UA flight a while back and (from memory but you can check) it came to about £250 of which around £180 was taxes and charges!

Not everyone knows this, and the airlines (and airport management companies) don't advertise it. Be careful of hidden charges by budget airlines especially. Ryanair is notorious for arbitrary 'administration fees' and are sailing dangerously close to the (legal) wind on this.
 

DC_DEEP

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As a slight aside I don't know if this is the case in the US but in the UK if one cancels one of those non refundable air tickets, the tax paid (APD) is refundable, in part on the above grounds and in part due to the way HMRC collects duty.
<...>
Not everyone knows this, and the airlines (and airport management companies) don't advertise it. Be careful of hidden charges by budget airlines especially. Ryanair is notorious for arbitrary 'administration fees' and are sailing dangerously close to the (legal) wind on this.
I used to know all those little "tricks of the trade" when I was working in the industry, but it's been 8 years, and I've forgotten a lot of the subtle workings. There were lots of things that we were instructed, "don't offer this information, but if a customer asks about it, give them accurate information."

I always encourage people to examine the additional charges, fees, and taxes on anything from airline tickets to hotel bills to restaurant tabs (some fast-food places in airports charge an unbelievably high "carry-out tax") and to dispute those fees whenever possible. True, some of those fees aren't really that much, but they add up, and sometimes those fees are what I call the "triple dip."

In the US, most of the "federal excise tax" (in theory) is supposed to go into a superfund, designed to pay for building, maintenance, and operation of airports. That's OK, the money has to come from somewhere. Each airport also charges every airline a gate rental on every gate they use, plus a "landing fee" for every flight that pulls into the gate. Once people got used to the federal excise tax, and stopped thinking about it, the airlines were required to begin collecting and tracking the "passenger facility charge," in those airports that collect it, for each flight segment, to pay for airport maintenance & operation (sound familiar?). Those fees & taxes were supposed to (and until 9-11, they did) pay for the cost of security. Then the fabulous idea of charging the security fee came along (and these are federal TSA employees, receiving taxpayer money as salary). That superfund I mentioned earlier? It's been "borrowed" for other things that have no association with air travel... but the government does NOT want the public to know about that.

So, those of you who select a $225 roundtrip ticket, and have to put $290 on your credit card... that's why.
 

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. I had the same piece of luggage which was pretty much the same weight for the entire trip. From LAS => DEN the scale said my luggage was 0.8lb over and I was changed the extra US$50. They said they had to be strict on the rules and I lived with it.
.

This is what Americans do. You take out an item and make them reweigh it until it gets to the correct weight. Tell them they can go FUCK themselves and their strict rules.

I've seen this done too, where people will take items out and shift it to their carry ons. It is very annoying when you are the next one on line and some Asshole is doing this. But if it saves you $50 it is worth it.