I’ve written on the subject of baggage fees a number of times before.  I feel that for any legacy carrier, indeed any carrier other than, perhaps, an Ultra Low Cost Carrier such as Spirit, to charge a fee for the first bag checked is wrong. 

WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.

When you are flying to a destination, that is called travel.  Travel is universally accepted to include the need to take along some belongings such as clothes, toothpaste and maybe a jacket, too.  Taking these items for a trip longer than an overnight or, perhaps, a casual 2 day trip, generally requires a bag that is larger than what airlines accept as carry-on baggage.   I can accept charging for a 2nd (or more) bag, but I refuse to go silently along with charging fees for a 1st bag and especially when an airline like Southwest Airlines refuses to charge for such a bag. 

Almost all airlines operating in the United States charge to check a bag now.  In fact, off the top of my head, Southwest is the only that doesn’t.   There was a rush to charge for this when we entered the Great Oil Crisis and the ancillary revenue has titillated both airline executives and financial analysts all over the country.  These fees were implemented and then they were even raised in many cases as the Great Oil Crisis eased off. 

My extreme chagrin originates in the fact that while everyone in The Business blesses these fees and likes to angle these new fees as “services”, they aren’t services.  This isn’t a charging for a Coca Cola, this is charging for a basic requirement (for most) when traveling.  A Coke is a much more optional item.   Furthermore, these fees subsidize giving these “services” to business class and/or frequent fliers for free. 

Regardless, they are here in our system.  So, if they’re going to be in our system, it would be nice to at least have some transparency both on the price of the fees as well as the requirements and restrictions governing these things.  In other words,  we should be able to see an “all in” price for our trip when we’re making the purchase and, by the way, that should be *before* we actually hand over our credit card number for this purchase.   This industry is somewhat unique in that there are “fees” being charged after the purchase that while styled as “optional”, really aren’t.  And the baggage fee is the epitome of that.

However, these fees have been around for 2+ years now and I don’t think they’re going away.  Because of my history with airlines and certainly because of this blog, I know about these fees and I just “handle it” when I’m traveling.  My own preferences towards airlines today lean towards LCC carriers such as Southwest and Airtran and on Airtran, I just pay my baggage fee online when doing my online check in and simmer down from my annoyance (which isn’t as great with Airtran since they charge a paltry $15 / bag instead of $25 like most legacy carriers.)

Consider this an open letter to American Airlines.

My daughter went to visit her uncle and grandparents yesterday.  Her grandparents paid for her ticket and they chose American Airlines.  Now, I should note that I haven’t flown AA since they instituted their bag fees primarily because I find American’s service product to be poor when compared to my other options.  In short, I fly other carriers now and I’ll point out that I live in the DFW area, location of AA’s biggest hub. 

Guess what I discovered?   American Airlines wouldn’t allow me to pre-pay my daughter’s checked bag fee(s) online.  There is absolutely no option for that anywhere on AA’s website.  None.  Zero. Nada. 

Really American Airlines?  Is that the best you’ve got?

After 2 years, you haven’t made a single accomodation on your website for the change in your business model?  And, yet, Airtran made it almost in real time. 

I get that you, as an airline, are a leviathan and that it’s difficult to change th direction of such a big ship.  I really do.  That means I’d have given you about 180 days to get that problem solved.  All I can conclude from your inability to implement this kind of stuff is that, as a company, you’re just damn lazy.

But if you had to change your ticket pricing model and accomodate that on your website, you would have that done in 30 days, wouldn’t you?  Sorry but a $24 Billion company should be able to get its act together a lot better than that.  In fact, I know it’s been pointed out that your website is outmoded already but it is remarkable that as somebody who has visited it regularly since it was in existence, it really hasn’t changed much at all. 

By the way, that means it still is a relatively large pain in the ass to get answers to my questions.

What’s more, when I discovered your egregious lack of accomodation for the inconveniences you inflict upon your customers, I phoned your company to see if this could be done on the phone.   After your voice recognition mangled my requests 4 or 5 times, I retreated to asking for “Agent” and “Operator”.  Imagine how aggravating it was for your system to actually say to me “I understand you want an agent but let me find out more about your needs before I connect you.”  Or words to that effect. 

Let me clue you in:  I’m an English speaking, native born US citizen who is actually known for not having an accent despite living in Texas for 40 years.  If your system can’t understand me, that’s *your* problem.  Not mine.  In fact, it wouldn’t be anyone’s problem because this is a prime example of why I find it distasteful to fly on your airline in the first place and it’s why I book myself away from your airline and have done so successfully now for over 2 years. 

It’s worth the extra time to connect in a different city on a different airline.  It just is a whole lot stressful than dealing with you, American Airlines.

Second, should I really be on the phone waiting to finally speak to an agent on this issue (which, by the way, isn’t addressed in your phone tree options as nearly as I can tell but I never did get far for all the voice recognition mistakes) for over 18 minutes on a Monday night?   In 2010, I should be waiting that long?  By the way, AA, I never did get through to an agent.  I mashed the “end” button my phone and got in my car and drove to my bank to withdraw extra money to give to my daughter so she could pay for your infuriating baggage fee when she got to the airport the next morning.   All because you, American, can’t answer your phone nor be bothered to update your website.

So, like everyone else, I’ll ask one more time:  Really?  Is that the best you’ve got?

Filed under: Airline Service by ajax