by Jerry Young

Created on: July 26, 2008

I am a frequent business flyer: averaging three roundtrip flights per month, twelve months a year. Add in vacations and visits to family and friends over seas and I am in the air a lot! This is not new, I have been doing it for years, and the truth is I like to fly.

I don't however like to wait. Wait at the counters as other passengers check 54 bags for their weekend trip. Wait in the security line as other passengers hold up the line getting their five carry-on bags and their lap top and their diaper bag and their purse or briefcase up and through the x-ray machine. Wait to get to my seat as the other passengers hold up the line trying to cram those five carry-on bags into the already over packed over head bins. Wait while those same passengers try to cram their lap top and their diaper bag and their purse or briefcases under the seat in front of them and then under my seat because there is no more room! Oh and if they happen to catch an awake ticket taker, wait while the passenger with the five carry-on bags is forced to fill out and attach tags once they are told they must be checked! Yep, I've waited for them all - over and over and over again!

Charging For Checked Baggage

Airlines are being hit in their fuel tanks, right along with the rest of us. In order for them to fly more cost efficiently, they need to reduce their weight. What better place to do this than with the large amount of luggage transported on each flight? If four passengers take the same flight and one of them doesn't check any bags, one check a bag, and the other two check 3 bags each. The last two passengers are the ones adding the most weight and therefore, they should be the ones to pay. The higher price to fly that flight has to be made up somewhere and it is only fair it is made up by those adding the most weight.

Airlines have charged for overweight bags for sometime now but people will often get around that. For example, the other day I needed to make a change on my ticket and was stuck inline behind a family who had packed 9 suitcases for the five of them. Seriously, the child told me they were going to Disneyland for a week and somehow that meant they needed nine suitcases between them. And I'm not talking about the car seat and stroller as they were separate! Anyway they had two suitcases that were over weight and they literally rearranged them at the counter while the rest of us waited. When they were still heavy on one, the Mom took out 2 coats (for Florida?) and carried them.

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