Jaunted

I got lucky

When I flew United to HI I just got a very friendly reminder that my bag was over 50 lbs. and that next time they would charge me. I didn't know the charge was $125!

Passenger Abuse

Why should *I* pay for your overweight bags? You know what the rules are when you purchase your ticket. The airlines, like many businesses, have discovered that a precious few abuse their rules - the same crowd that abuse rules everywhere. And now, given the tough times, they've decided not to cop it any more. OSHA and other safety agencies are also taking issue with employees being asked to pick up these overweight bags. It results in injury to people. And like noted above, UA isn't going to be inflexible about the rule. Clearly passengers that have picked up a few souvenirs in Hawaii aren't going to be made to pay for a couple pounds over. It's the abusers who show up with large numbers of overweight bags that will pay. As it should be. I've found UA to be reasonable on these kinds of issues.

totally reasonable to charge overweight bags BUT

$125? That's practically one leg of the ticket. I agree that some people probably abuse the weight limit but $50 would be more reasonable.

What's a reasonable charge?

This isn't designed to be a "reasonable" charge, it's designed to be punitive. Why is that so hard to understand? You've made a reservation based on contractual terms, and a small minority of passengers think that they can show up at the airport with anything, any size, and any weight. The airlines have decided to put a stop to it. And in this new era of ala carte services from the airlines, I WANT the airline to enforce their contractual obligations. Perfectly reasonable to be punitive.