Miss Gingerbread, Vancouver
Age and Occupation: 32, Psychologist
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Software Engineer
Engagement Date: Sometime in the fall of 2004
Wedding Date: July, 2008
Blogging Since: March 24, 2008
Venue: Rainforest wedding, beachfront restaurant reception
About Me: I recently moved to Canada from Southern California. Trying to plan a wedding in a new city, not to mention a new country, is tough, but the fact that we can get legally married here more than makes up for it! The wedding will be an opportunity for most of our family and friends to see our new city for the first time so it will be both a wedding and a reunion. Besides my future wife, I am also madly in love with a good bargain, Swedish pastries, Tivo, and my two dogs and calico cat (in no particular order).
Goodbye Friendly Skies
May 22nd, 2008 @ 8:32 am by Miss Gingerbread
Oh, air travel, you have become such a nightmare.
Remember the good old days of airline travel?
Wait, what? Sweet rolls? What a relic of the past. Having just flown across the country, I can confidently say the friendly skies are a thing of the past.
There’s a lot to consider when planning your air travel, especially if you are off on your honeymoon and want to have more than one change of clothes. Weddingbee reader, rebecca, posted information on the Boards about American Airlines’ new policy on charging for all checked baggage! Alaska Airlines, US Airways, Continental, Delta, Northwest and United are charging $25 extra if you want to check a second piece of luggage.
I am dreading the thought of all the passengers who overstuff their carry ons to avoid the extra charge. Last night I sat next to a guy who was peeved at having to check his carry on at the gate. I am sure if they then tried to get him to pay to check it, he would have punched someone.
American and Delta just increased the fee to check bags with a skycap at the curb. By the way, this money goes directly into the airlines’ pockets and does not benefit the skycaps in any way. In fact, a group of skycaps at Boston’s Logan International Airport (who only make about $5/hour) are suing American Airlines for lost tips.
So before you book your next ticket for that out of town wedding or your honeymoon, it’s worth doing some research to see what new restrictions await you. You’ll likely already feel the pinch with the fuel surcharges, so I doubt you’ll want to be charged an extra $80 for two checked bags on American Airlines.
Do these new airline charges impact your travel? Are there other hidden charges that you know of that we should be aware of?
26 Responses to “Goodbye Friendly Skies”
I just flew US Airlines over to Vegas, and they now charge you an additional $39 to sit in the front HALF of the plane. Not first class, not business class, just to score a seat that’s pretty much in front of the wings. I asked to get our seats bumped up at check in, since we were sitting literally in front of the toilet, and the clerk rudely informed me that sure he could move me, for $39/seat, and when I questioned it, he said, “come see me when fuel is less than $75 a gallon, and THEN we’ll talk.”
What. Ev. Er. Flying’s just a disaster anymore.
Although I agree that flying is a nightmare unfortunately I don’t think there is anything the airlines can do about the increase in fares, charging for extras. From what I understand, they are barely covering their costs for fuel, upkeep etc, it’s not like they are getting filthy rich off of us with these increases (unlike the oil companies!) many airlines are going bankrupt because they can’t cover their costs. I hate the extra fees, cramped planes and ridiculous waits as much as the next gal, but I can also see the airlines point of view.
But ask me again after I fly to Hawaii next week!
While it stinks - what do we all really expect? If it costs more to drive - it costs more to fly. What they should have done is tack the price onto the tickets, not the bags, but either way - the airlines would get flacked…
The problem with any kind of ticket/fare increases are they are d*mned if they do and d*mned if they don’t…
I agree it seems extreme, but I don’t get why people are mad at the airlines, but not the oil companies? They are swimming in cash and the airlines are at the brink of bankruptcy. Congress needs to step in and do something about this crisis!
I almost always fly Southwest. Sure, they don’t have a lot of the bells and whistles, but you can check three…yup THREE bags. That’s how I moved to college!
I personally like the surcharge idea and don’t see them as “hidden” fees. I look at them more like upgrades in a new era of air travel.
I normally fly with a moderately sized carry-on (even internationally!) and I’m only 5ft. 3in. so where ever I sit I’m pretty comfy. I prefer to pay a lower fee for my ticket and then let other people pay for things I don’t care about - like boarding first, sitting in a certain spot or for bringing big, heavy bags. (More/heavy bags = more fuel).
UPS has a fuel surcharge. Grocery stores are charging more for a head of lettuce driven across the country. I don’t think the airlines should take such a beating for attempting to be profitable.
I have to travel with my viola, which is too fragile to check, and it takes up my carryon limit. Some of the things most people would put in their carryon have to go in my checked bag. (BTW, even though there are very clear FAA- and musicians’ union-imposed rules about traveling with instruments, musicians still get a LOT of crap about bringing instruments on the plane, even though they’re significantly smaller than most rollerboards.) I’m glad they’re relaxing some of these rules for overseas travel, but what about people who are traveling domestically for long periods of time? I recently had to travel for 6 weeks (to multiple destinations) and had 13 lbs. of music in my suitcase, so I had to suck it up and only bring ONE PAIR OF SHOES!!!! HORROR OF HORRORS!!! 
The NYT article about the new restrictions had some very interesting things to say about business travelers:
The one fee I read about that made me really furious was charging up to $100 for children traveling alone… basically amounts to a divorce surcharge. I know these kids require a little extra attention, but come on! They don’t even get wings anymore!
Jennifer, you’re really lucky in this case to be 5′3″ and not have to pack a lot… and I appreciate that some people are thoughtful and conscious enough to pack only small bags. Unfortunately, those of us pushing 6′ (and *needing,* not just wanting, to pack a checked bag, as I just posted) are getting screwed. I would love to be comfortable in every airline seat, and to not have to wait at the carousel for my bag (wondering if it made it!)…
i’ve read various places that this time next year, air travel will only be common for the extremely wealthy.
@Janna19: YES indeed. the oil companies are lining their pockets right now, believe it. Maybe a president who isn’t in bed with the oil companies can right this, but for now, we all need to avoid big oil gas stations and reduce driving as much as possible!
My big problem with the airlines is that the quality of service seems to have plummeted while prices have skyrocketed. In an attempt to be profitable, the airlines will overbook the number of flights entering/exiting an airport so that everyone’s flight is delayed (I really don’t know how that’s profitable for anyone except maybe the airport so you’ll buy more overpriced food/drinks while you wait) - and then even worse are when you’re delayed when you’re already on the runway.
My fiance and I are moving halfway across the country in about a month and a half. I don’t even want to THINK about how much that move is going to cost us. We’re moving from a college town in Michigan to New York City - driving a UHaul doesn’t seem feasible, and hiring movers seemed too expensive, but if I’m going to be charged for every bag of stuff I want to bring on the plane then we might have to do that….
I miss the good ol’ days of flying when I was a shorter person. Right now I’d pay to have a few more inches of legroom or to have the recline feature removed from the chair in front of me!
On June 25th I will be flying with AA across the country for my big day. I was planning to carry my dress on with me, but I am afraid it will me smooched now that everyone will be having a carry-ons. I hope a flight attendant will take pity on me.
I personally don’t have an issue with the fee. It also might cut down on lines…
Luckily this doesn’t really affect me - I fly exclusively with Southwest (it’s a weird comfort thing I have with them since I’m a very fearful flier). However, I think we know where all of these hidden fees are coming from. I don’t necessarily blame the airlines - they’re losing money hand over fist thanks to the rising cost of gas.
The increase is effective for tickets purchased AFTER JUNE 15. Hopefully everyone can get their plans confirmed by them. I was outraged because I am flying to Italy in October and taking a lot of things with me… but we got our tickets in Feb… so we SHOULD be ok
Yikes! I think I’d have to ask “And what is your name and your direct supervisor’s name?”
@MsAnge:
I 100% agree. Yes, the gas prices have affected everyone. But to make up a fee for checked luggage when their customer service is far from OK? Not acceptable. One of the few airlines who are allowed 3 checked in pieces of luggage per passenger WITHOUT a surcharge is rated one of the highest in airline customer service.
Luckily we’re not being affected with the luggage surcharge nonsense because we’re flying with Southwest. The only surcharges are for additional bags over the 3 or going over the weight or height restrictions. Even the weight and height restrictions are extremely easy to avoid, the specs are on their website, and I weigh my luggage a couple of days before I’m headed to the airport.
As someone who had to do customer service work for a few years, you couldn’t pay me anything to work for an airline. Basically, you’d have to take whatever the airline AND the customers dished out.
I was not looking forward to flying before…now I’m dreading it. 
My fiance and I are flying to New York tonight to visit family and we’re flying Jet Blue. We wanted to sit together and the only side-by-side seats that were still available were in the “emergency exit” row. We were fine with that but when I selected the seats a pop-up informed me that these seats are $20 more each because they have more leg room. Um…they’re REQUIRED to have more leg room because they’re emergency rows. So basically we’re paying for the privilege of sitting in the Emergency aisle. Total BS.
This sucks, but it is necessary
We (my dad, sister and I) booked tickets to MD (from CA) for September a couple months ago… I’ll be interested to see what extras they tack on to what we have already paid.
fly continental!! in the last two years ive flown them w. my fiance about 4 or 5 times for vacations and (knock on wood) it’s been smooth sailing each and every time. honestly i wouldn’t fly any other airline. the security of knowng they are reliable is worth a few extra $$ (and usually they are the cheapest anyway to fly from nyc area!!).
they don’t nickle & dime & they serve meals on any flight that i think is 3 or 4 hours…if it’s a shorter flight they always give 2 snacks…
okay i love continental lol! happy travels everyone!!
@Jodi: @Jodi: I assure you, had I not been so dumbfounded, I would’ve. But as flustered as I was, and slightly embarrassed (after I had told my bf (who’s never flown) that it’s not a big deal and you can usually ask to be moved up further if there are empty seats - that I just turned on my heels and walked away.
Another reason to not fly American. It really will make me think twice when we want to travel. Luckily our guests will be flying within the same state (CA), so they will choose Southwest or drive.
Our out of the country guests will be flying Mexicana, so that is good.
So ppl are going to overstuff their carry on, then the flights will be delayed b/c ppl will have to check them in ANd get charged……oh man.
Honestly, I think the problem is that airline service sucks. I’d gladly pay a little more on friendly airlines like JAL or Emirates. Can you believe it? Their flight attendants actually smile! Sure, I hate that the fuel costs are going up. I hate that AA (and most likely future airlines) are charging for checked luggage. But I’d be more willing to pay that $25 if they treat me as if I was someone who pays $200+ for a seat on their plane. Oh wait, I DO.
For everyone that mentioned Southwest and 3 pieces of baggage, I just flew from college two weeks ago and they actually dropped it to 2 pieces (but I think with a slightly higher weight limit for both pieces), and the third piece is an extra $25. Still, it’s MUCH better than AA which I used to fly because it was right out of my school’s airport. Oh well.
This is exactly why we’re going to make sure our Minimoon is drive-friendly, instead of fly-friendly.
Even if gas is pricey, at least I can fill up an entire truck with shoes without much harm! No self-respecting female should have to travel with less than 3 pairs of shoes, even if only for a night! 
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