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National Geographic Traveler journalist Christopher Elliott has offered shrewd, straightforward travel advice in the Wall Street Journal, on MSNBC,...
Read more about By Christopher Elliott, Tribune Media Services.
National Geographic Traveler journalist Christopher Elliott has offered shrewd, straightforward travel advice in the Wall Street Journal, on MSNBC,...
Read more about By Christopher Elliott, Tribune Media Services.
7 Ways to Avoid Checked Luggage Fees
By Christopher Elliott, Tribune Media Services
Like just about every other airline passenger this summer, Elizabeth
Rodgers wants to avoid any unnecessary fees. So on a recent flight
from Los Angeles to Boise, Idaho, she tried to carry all of her
luggage on the plane.
She didn't get far.
As Rodgers boarded the cramped regional jet, passengers were being asked to gate-check most of their carry-ons. A flight attendant tagged her extra bag without charging her $15 . "I checked it for free," says Rodgers, a technology writer based in Los Angeles.
Sidestepping this year-old airline rule was pretty easy up to this point. Flight attendants and gate agents routinely waved passengers with too much luggage through, hoping to avoid a confrontation. But now that baggage fees are generating serious money -- they accounted for $1.5 billion in 2008, according to the Transportation Department -- airlines are less likely to let the surplus bags slide.
For example:
--
--
--
Airlines are spinning the changes in a clever way. My favorite explanation comes from
It's clear that airlines are depending on ancillary revenues in general, and luggage fees in particular, more than ever. Meaning air travelers must be more vigilant than ever about avoiding them.
The days of passengers like Rodgers eluding a $15 or $50 fee are numbered. A proposed new law would see to that. It tasks the Transportation Security Administration with limiting the number of carry-ons travelers can bring through security checkpoints. Not hard to see the airline industry's fingerprints all over that bill.
What to do?
1. BRING LESS.
Obviously, the best way to avoid paying for a checked bag is not to bring one in the first place. "Keep your bags as light as possible," advises Barbara DesChamps, author of "It's in the Bag: The Complete Guide to Lightweight Travel." How can you tell if your luggage is overweight? I've been testing a Balanzza digital luggage scale that's very portable and, at a $24.99 list price, doesn't break the bank. Don't take this advice too far, though. Pack a change of clothes, and for goodness sakes, wear something on the plane.
2. FLY A NO-FEE AIRLINE.
3. LOOK FOR LOOPHOLES.
They still exist. For example,
4. ASK SOMEONE ELSE TO PAY.
Hotels are mindful that first-bag fees can hurt their business, so they're offering to cover the fees. One of the first was Kimpton Hotels. My friends over at Amelia Island, Fla., have a new program called "Pack Your Bags for Amelia Island" that offers air travelers an $80 room credit for checked baggage fees. If you have to pay for a checked bag, why not pass the bill off to someone else?
5. GET CREATIVE.
Passengers like Carolina Moore, a marketing consultant in North Las Vegas, Nev., are finding interesting ways of avoiding the fees. When she flew with her nine-month-old son recently, she discovered that consolidating her purse, diaper bag, car seat and port-a-crib into two large (and barely legal) bags allowed her to avoid paying the $15 fee. "So, I guess I didn't really break any of the rules," she says. "I just stretched them to capacity."
6. EXPLOIT POLICY DIFFERENCES.
Airlines don't have uniform luggage rules so when you're flying on two or more airlines use that to your advantage. Consider what happened to Kristi Nelson when she flew from Oahu to Portland recently. A Hawaiian Air agent in Lihue asked if she wanted to check her bags all the way through to the mainland. "You bet I do," she said. "I thought for a minute and wondered how we would pay the baggage fee for our Northwest flight from Honolulu." But when she landed, no one bothered to charge her.
7. MAIL IT.
None of this ought to be necessary. If airlines could figure out how to make enough money from their fares, then they wouldn't need to nickel and dime those of us who aren't fortunate enough to be elite-level frequent fliers, unaccompanied minors or active duty military.
On a personal note, I never thought I'd have to write a column like this. Ever.
A decade ago, who could have imagined paying for airline food? Today, we're lucky if there are bland snacks for sale. Checking two or three pieces of luggage was considered the air traveler's inalienable right. Today we're paying through the nose for our checked bags.
How do we fix this? I can think of two solutions. First, air travelers can buy tickets on airlines that don't charge outrageous fees, like JetBlue and Southwest.
And second, our government can say, "enough!" It wouldn't take much. The Transportation Department could rule that the price of an airline ticket must include at least one piece of checked luggage, and that would pretty much end this debate.
Will it? If the government hears from enough air travelers, sure. Here's how to contact them.
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Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. This column originally appeared on MSNBC.com. You can read more travel tips on his blog, elliott.org or e-mail him at celliott@ngs.org.
This news arrived on: 08/03/2009
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Posted Comments:
08-19-2009 14:56
Veronica Mason wrote:
Great Information
I really appreciate this information. This story was very helpful to me. I do not travel often but when I do travel I would like to avoid the added fees. Thanks again for a very informative piece.
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