We're beginning to suspect that United has a full time brainstormer working on ways to monetize people's luggage issues. Hot on the heels of their $249 "free" baggage offer, the airline is offering door-to-door overnight shipping of anything passengers want sent ahead. The only caveat is that the service costs $149 per flight for trips less than 1,000 miles and $179 for flights that go over that.

The Wall Street Journal, discussing the new scheme, refers to United as a "pioneer" in imposing baggage fees. We sometimes muse similarly, though instead of "pioneer" we use what our therapist calls "anger words." Here's what the WSJ exactly said:]]> Omri 2009-10-23T16:40:08-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/10/9/14921/9197

Virgin America, the California-based airline that paid too much for their ubiquitously-plastered slogan "on a mission to make flying good again," is launching a new class of fully-refundable, fully-transferable flight options. The "Main Cabin Refundable" fares will obviously cost a little bit more but, in addition to allowing you a wide range of ticket changes, they come with perks like checking in a bag for free (no small perk these days). This is basically a travel insurance-plus fare.

Main Cabin Refundable tickets are fully refundable up to the literal minute of departure. Ditto for transferring the tickets to a different name. There are no blackout dates, no minimum or maximum stay requirements, and no advanced purchases required. They really seem to be going out of their way to make these fares usable and attractive, even refunding the differences between old and new tickets to your credit card.]]> Omri 2009-10-09T14:51:31-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/10/6/13532/5182

United Airlines is launching a new program that allows passengers to buy their way into Premier Baggage, essentially offering customers the opportunity to pay the airline's exorbitant baggage fees in one lump sum. Instead of United's unreasonable per flight fees, customers now have the option of paying $249 for a year-long fee waiver on their first and second checked bags, plus the bags of up to 8 companions traveling on their confirmation code.

We honestly can't make sense of this move. Anyone who flies United regularly enough to make this worthwhile already gets Premier from their miles. For this to make sense, you'd have to fly more than 15 times a year and check a bag every time. Unless you're just hop-scotching from LA to Vegas—in which case why are you flying United and why are you checking a bag—that easily gets you to 25,000 miles.]]> Omri 2009-10-06T14:04:39-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/9/4/131340/3502

We're running out of sarcastic ways to blog about new airline fees. The latest comes from low-cost carrier Hawaiian Airlines, which announced yesterday that they're adding a $10 fee for the first checked bag on interisland flights. It is what it is. And look how charmingly the announcement was made:

Mark Dunkerley, president and chief executive officer of Hawaiian, said the airline makes $20 million to $30 million a year from ancillary revenue — mostly from checked bags — and that baggage fees are here to stay as long as airlines need that revenue.

· Hold your horses; Southwest is still keen on in-flight WiFi
A press release today announced that Southwest is continuing on their route to outfit their entire fleet with in-flight WiFi from provider Row 44. "The airline has been testing the service on four aircraft since Feb. 2009 and has received fantastic Customer feedback on the product." Curious if your Southwest flight will have in-flight WiFi? We tell you how to find out here. ]]> JetSetCD 2009-08-21T16:04:38-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/8/14/1133/13347

Do you swear that the airlines have it out for you and so manage to lose your bags 9 times out of ten? Well, you aren't all that special since lost baggage is still very much an epidemic, and Andrew Price, the head of the International Air Transport Association's Baggage Improvement Program, can attest to this. He not only has his own bags lost or delayed much of the time, but it's actually his job to see that this doesn't happen.

Poor Mr. Price; he just admitted this embarrassing fact to the Wall Street Journal and they've used it as a jumping-off point to take a deeper look at the barely-turning cogs behind international airline luggage movement: ]]> JetSetCD 2009-08-14T11:39:34-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/8/3/8305/03190

Baggage fee hikes continue as this British Airways announced that beginning October 7, international passengers flying economy will only be allowed one free checked bag. The previous, pretty standard way of international checked luggage was to allow each person two checked bags, but now that second will cost ya.

On British, economy class is called "World Traveller" and "World Traveller Plus," and these are the only classes affected. Flying Club World (business) or First Class will still yield the massive allowance of three free checked bags on international flights.

So why the change? British Airways, like many other recession-hit carriers, is smarting from heavy losses and looking for new revenue streams, or in their words: "to address the economic downtown and better reflect changing customer trends." Those changing customer trends might be all in their heads, however, as the LA Times notes that BA's major competitors of Virgin Atlantic and Air New Zealand are still allowing passengers two checked bags.

Related Stories:
· British Airways reducing free baggage allowance [LA Times]
· British Airways Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: caribb]]]> JetSetCD 2009-08-03T08:55:33-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/