With oil at almost $120 air lines are scrambling to pay for the extra charges. So Air Canada has just announced that economy class travellers will have to pay $25 if they want to check a second bag on North American flights. Economy passengers checking more than two bags will be charged $100 for each additional bag on North American flights and $225 on international flights.
How does that grab you?
A business professor at the University of Toronto asks « Are they sacrificing customer good-will by nickel-and-diming the passenger the wa y they are doing? » Another consumer official says, « I think there’s a breaking point in what consumers will take before they reduce their flying. »
Will these extra charges cause you to reduce your flying?
Will you stick to one bag and avoid the new charge?
Will you happily pay the $25 because the airlines must try to offset their increased fuel costs?
Neil McKenty Weblog 
I don’t fly commercial, so I haven’t paid much attention to this issue. Can’t say I’m surprised, though.
A long time ago, it was quite common for passengers to be charged for overweight, oversize, and extra baggage. That was before any airline had specially-designated freight planes. It’s cargo, not passengers, that pays the bills.
If an airline can recombine cargo with passengers, the more space they take away from luggage for freight, the more money they will be able to make. If passengers insist on taking all their worldly goods with them, they’re gonna have to pay for it.
$25.00?
They should be charging $100.00 extra…and we should gladly pay.
The airline industry is notorious for not making money. It is also, like long distance service, something which has gone DOWN in price — WAY down — over the last 30 years.
Quite frankly, I don’t know how they even survive (well, most don’t).
So, wipe your noses, spoiled whining Canadians, and start paying the extra $25.00 for that second pair of lederhosen you just simply must bring to Ft. Lauderdale with you.
Yes over the last 50 years or so we Canadians have had it pretty good. So good in fact that we have forgotten much. The wife and I will be flying to the Grand Canyon in early June. We won’t bring lederhosen, not even a fustanella. We may even have a single valise. Spoiled children always want more for less.
I remember back in the 40s I could’nt even afford a streetcar ticket and in the fifties I walked to work to save the fare. That was a long time ago and the young ones never had to do this. They can’t even imagine it.
There is no reason for the airlines to lose money. I’m tired of flying. Too many complications. Too many surprises. The two most annoying surprises are – advertising discount rates when the rate applies to only 8 seats on the plane – not mentioning in their ads the extras such as fuel surcharges, baggage limitations etc. Also fancy stories why the plane is still stopped at the end of the runway. I want a 1% discount for each minute on the ground otherwise let me wait in the terminal where I can make other arrangements. Do you believe that the have held passengers for over 8 hours. On a trip to Cancun with a change at Philly we waited on the ground in Burlington Vt. for two hours with the excuse of a heavy snowfall in Philly When we landed in Philly there was no snow on the ground. I new they had been lying about the snow when they announced over the loudspeaker « will the crew please report
to your aircraft », half an hour after the ETD.This caused them to lose their landing turn in Philly. We also missed our connection because of this and ended up in Miami. Oy Vey.
I never have much baggage, and if I know I have to pay more I will arrange myself to reduce it even more.The baggage so far has not been a problem to me. Also, travelling to Europe(Switzerland) is always expensive so another $ 25 would not make much difference. I do also see that the airline industrie is out to making money and they need to have space for cargo that pays. We are spoiled to always get what we want. I have no problems to support something I want (space on the plane, in the cargo section.)
I would, however. gladly pay another $25.00 if they gave me some space for my knees!