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What's To Be Done About The Baggage Scale Crouch Of Shame?

December 15, 2008 at 2:05 PM | by pbb | 2 Comments

Back in the days before pricey luggage fees and seemingly weekly airline bankruptcies, carriers didn't ever seem to charge for overweight bags. But we've recently heard about shady baggage scales from Tucson to St. Lucia, a disturbingly awful trend that can cost you at least $50 for every "overweight" suitcase you check.

Of course, the problem is that most hotel rooms don't come with scales--and even if they did, would you really be geeky enough to balance your Samsonite on there before heading to the airport?

In other words, the airlines have us by the rucksacks: If you're gonna check a bag, you have to trust the scale at check in. Overweight bags have led us to perform the dreaded crouch of shame more than once, digging through our dirty underwear in front of everyone, stuffing extras into our carry-on to lighten our checked load. But what's to be done about the hidden baggage scale scourge?

Do you have any tricks to determine which scales are bogus? Is one airline more guilty of shady scales than the others? And have you ever had to do your own crouch of shame? Let's commiserate in the comments.

Related Stories:
· More Airport Scales We Can't Trust [Jaunted]
· Baggage Scale Crisis Continues in Caribbean [Jaunted]
· Jaunted Open Threads [Jaunted]

[Photo: tttallis]

2 Comments

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Return to » What's To Be Done About The Baggage Scale Crouch Of Shame?

  1. markj

    Jaunted

    Scale Issues

    The Today Show featured a device that weighs baggage. You just clip it to your bag and lift it. At least that way you get a second opinion I guess. I tried JetBlue scales at BOS, NYC, and CUN this past week and they all gave me the same reading -- so calibration was not an issue on JetBlue -- at least at those three airports. However, I did see many fliers doing the crouch, unzipping their bags and looking for heavy coats to throw on to shed a couple quick baggage pounds.
    December 15, 2008 at 2:40 PM
    #Permalink

  1. egw

    Jaunted Editor

    I have done the crouch of shame

    but it never helped. The only cure for this chronic overpacker was to put all books, etc. in carryon and then cross my fingers. I'll test some scales later this week at LGA.
    December 15, 2008 at 3:37 PM
    #Permalink

Return to » What's To Be Done About The Baggage Scale Crouch Of Shame?

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