Re: airplane baggage

[David Gans <david@trufun.com>]

At 1:47 AM +0900 4/23/06, mech wrote:


>Yeah, it would probably be best to err on the side of caution.  The 
>airlines have evidently decided very recently that charging for 
>overweight and excess baggage can be a new revenue stream for them. 
>And they've all pretty much fallen lockstep into the same pattern at 
>pretty much the same time too, from what I've just seen.

Uh-oh.  I don't like the sound of that.

I got dinged by Delta for an excess baggage charge on the return leg 
of a round trip, after being able to carry my guitar on board 
outbound.

Coming home form Jamaica a couple of weeks ago I was required to 
check my guitar at DFW, after carrying it on board at Montego Bay 
with no problems.

Inconsistent enforcement of unstated policies can be crazy-making. 
If it's going to be uniform and punitive, I may have to change my 
whole strategy for traveling with gear.

How much does it cost to ship a road case separately?



>Our whole family flew across the country out to Seattle last month. 
>We figured it would be easier all around to have one larger bag for 
>three people, rather than lots of smaller ones.  Our one large bag 
>weighed in at ~65 pounds, and we got charged a fee at the airport 
>for that single bag being overweight.  This was despite the fact 
>that we could have been within our rights to take along three bags 
>apiece, each weighing 50 pounds.

I got hit that way once, too, and I was not very nice about it.  My 
two bags added up to less than the limit, but one of the bags was 
more than the single-bag limit.  Seemed to be all about the money.


>Oh, and in case you didn't catch it above, it looks like the max bag 
>weight has now been lowered from 70 to 50 pounds per bag.  Another 
>hidden charge with which air carriers can gouge their customers, so 
>watch the weight on those racks.  :P

Ack.



-- 

David Gans - david@trufun.com or david@gdhour.com
Truth and Fun, Inc., 484 Lake Park Ave. #102, Oakland CA 94610-2730
Blog:  http://playback.trufun.com