US Airways To Charge You for Checking Your Bags at the Airport

May 4, 2009 at 2:13 PM | by Omri | 0 Comments

Obviously—and as a rule—we're against new airline fees. Our hatred is doubly strong for hidden airline fees. So normally this kind of "we're charging you because we can" nonsense from US Airways would make us go ballistic, but since we've long learned our lesson about checking baggage, we're indifferent. Here's the deal:

Beginning July 9, 2009, you'll be able to pay for checked bags when you check in online—$15 for your first checked bag and $25 for your second. For customers who choose to pay for checked bags at the airport, there will be an additional $5 service fee, so save a few when you check in online!

We've thought about this fee's origin and likely future. We've pondered it from the perspectives of egalitarian fairness and social equality. We've even paused to consider if maybe this is just another way for US Airways to screw with passengers. And after much back and forth disputation: eh.

This is a profit-seeking entity incentivizing the use of technologies that save everyone time and money. Fair enough. More precisely it's a profit-seeking entity punishing anyone who doesn't use those technologies. Not as beneficent, but still fair enough. At least they're not Spirit Airlines, which charges you extra fees for buying a ticket online.

Yeah it's unfair to travelers who don't have computer access, to say nothing of the much larger and more personally salient subset who don't have their crap together. But there can't be that many travelers without Internet access, making this the equivalent of a late fee.

Besides, getting punished for not electronically confirming appointments is par for the contemporary bureaucratic course. Have you tried to go to the DMV in the past two years without making an appointment? We're guessing not, since obviously you've made it back to your computer.

[Photo: Matt.Hintsa]

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