Link: American, Cutting Back, Plans $15 Bag Fee
“It’s the end of an era,” said Robert W. Mann Jr., an airline industry consultant in Port Washington, N.Y. Referring to the range of fees that customers face, Mr. Mann added, “Soon, like freight, we will pay by the pound for passenger air travel.”
Horse hockey. Only the amateurs and unfortunates who are for some reason forced to fly American will have to put up with this. Airlines try this kind of stuff all the time; it only sticks if the other airlines follow suit. So if customers remove American from the list of airlines they’re willing to subject themselves to (as I plan to), the other airlines won’t emulate this predatory pricing tactic and we won’t have to put up with it.
I should mention that last week when I was traveling to Florida and New York I flew Continental and it was terrific.
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I, for one, am ready to write off American and United – and I actually have had a United Mileage card for over a decade. They have flirted with the right solutions in the past – in 1999-2000 I would only fly American due to the extra legroom.
Flew Virgin America this past month – loved it. With Virgin, JetBlue, and Southwest for domestic, and with international carriers for international, I’m not sure when I’ll ever need to fly American/United again.
Adam
No effing kidding. I’m really looking forward to having an excuse to fly Virgin America, I always loved taking Virgin to London.