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Comments (17)
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Save/ShareBy purchasing the carrier's "Boarding and Flexibility Package," you're entitled to perks that, not long ago, there was no need to pay for.
Starting at an intro price of $9 to $19 per flight, American's new offering grants travelers the following:
Be among the first to board the plane and gain more time to store carry-on luggage and to get comfortable in your seat.Provides you flexibility to standby for an earlier flight on your departure day at no additional charge.
Increase flexibility and save $75 off the regular $150 service charge, when applicable, when you need to change your travel itinerary.
What's funny (or sad) is that, as Christopher Elliott wrote, this amounts to a flier having to pay one fee to avoid some others. This is obviously the case for the latter two aspects of American's package, and it must be noted that in the recent past, there were no standby fees, and the service charge for changing a domestic flight was in fact $75. So basically, the new package fee brings travelers mostly back to square one, before the fee onslaught began.
As for the first part of American's package regarding priority boarding, well that too pretty much wouldn't be necessary were it not for the rise in fees. Checked baggage fees caused many more fliers to travel only with carry-on bags -- meaning there were a lot more carry-ons overall, along with more competition to secure spots for said bags in the overhead bins. Before the advent of widespread checked luggage fees, finding a convenient overhead bin location for your carry-on was relatively easy, and there was far less reason for the traveler to want to board the plane early, especially if that traveler had to pay for the privilege of doing so.
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What kind of fools to the management of these companies take us for? My wife and I have decided to move as much of our flying as possible to Southwest because of all this mess, but even they have put in a $10 each way fee if you want to be able to get the boarding pass process earlier or automatically. Still, 2 bags per person fly free.
On our last AAL flight, they let people who weren't going to use the overhead board first - and we know that some of them then used the overheads anyway. They must think we are stupid.
Posted By Alan Davis on June 17, 2010, 11:07 AM
The solution for all this nonsence...limit the flying and travelling! Will have more money to just enjoy life without all the travel hassels.
Posted By Mary on June 17, 2010, 12:26 PM
We are stupid!
As long as passengers continue to try to save $5 on an airfare by waiting for the next sale the airlines are going to have to make it up some way.
Posted By Rich on June 17, 2010, 12:43 PM
We tried the Southwest "Early Bird: check in on two occasions. In the first instance, we got #34
and 35. (we checked our last boarding passes from a previous flight and we had, you guessed it, #34 and 35)On a second flight, on the Early Bird, we got #41 and 42. On the previous flight, at no extra charge, we got #37 and 38.
Tell me again, what are we paying $20 for???
Posted By john lyons on June 17, 2010, 1:28 PM
Hats off to the American Airlines's " squeeze more money out" department. Next on the agenda, charges for elderly passengers ( as they need additional help)? or extra charges for family traveling with small children( that extra handling again)? Oh, BTW, you can still get early boarding if you are ( or traveling) with elderly, same for traveling with small children. or may be we should tell the gate agent that we "hurt" our ankle and needed some extra time to board? Image a flight from JFK to Orlando in the winter, just about the whole flight need early boarding,still want to pay extra to get on early to put away your bag(s) ?
Posted By Alex on June 17, 2010, 1:39 PM
The answer is simple, DON"T FLY AMERICAN AIRLINES
Posted By Patrick Kennedy on June 17, 2010, 3:05 PM
Does that mean that AA's Priority Access (Gold/Silver) members are going to compete for overhead space with those paying that fee?!?
Posted By carol on June 17, 2010, 3:19 PM
To Carol--the answer is no. Elites will still board first (after first class). Paying fee to board early puts those folks in Group 1 which boards after elites.
Posted By Rob on June 17, 2010, 4:23 PM
An interesting article in the NYT pointed out that the airlines that have introduced the highest baggage fees are also the ones that have lost the most business. Bean counters who look at short term additional receipts don't look at longer term loss of market share.
Posted By Ian Stuart on June 17, 2010, 5:42 PM
Well we discontinued our Citi Bank AA credit card and now check the internet for best fares. So even though we flew 24 segments a yr on AA the last time they charged $25 to check for 22 in bag. Claimed it looked to big.
Posted By Steve on June 17, 2010, 7:54 PM
I thought the carry on bags went under your seat.
That was why the size restriction. Only light weight needs to go above my head.
Posted By Cheryl on June 17, 2010, 10:28 PM
I paid an extra $10 for so called 'early bird' boarding on Southwest only to find my seatmate who checked in LATE - just a couple hours before boarding had an earlier boarding number than I paid $10 to get!! Never again. I had #28 and she had #19 - go figure. So even Southwest can and will screw you. Shame on them when they charge extra for something that for some odd reason doesn't work!! How can someone who checks in two hours early board before someone who paid to be checked in supposedly many many hours before REGULAR fliers were allowed to check in online???
We have just finished our plans for our first road trip in many years - we plan to 'rediscover' the pleasure of a regular family vacation sans airfare hassles.
Posted By CMM on June 17, 2010, 10:33 PM
For what? I probably will drop my Citibank AA card also; I use to be so proud to fly AA & look how they repay loyalty. I even gave mileage to children who needed to travel for Medical Reasons (AA probably charged them for their luggage too!)
Posted By Leacarol Shinder on June 18, 2010, 12:05 AM
I think the airlines are shooting themselves in the foot. For many years I WAS a frequent flyer for business but have discovered the joy of driving to most of my destinations in the past year; The train ride from Austin to San Diego was delightful - less expensive, relaxing, sceanic and virtually no hassles. I am looking into taking cruises to get to my Hawaii and overseas destinations. I spend my travel dollars where I am appreciated... All I can say is THANKS AIRLINES! I am getting more fun in my life after all.
Posted By Melissa on June 18, 2010, 1:04 PM
Seriously? With all the airlines available...why would ANYONE pay even more to fly American?
Posted By Shotze on June 18, 2010, 4:36 PM
Just a suggestion for those that will (smartly) refuse to pay this stupid fee... I usually end up boarding in one of the last groups and sometimes have to work pretty hard to find space for my (non-overstuffed!) 22 inch carry-on. At the last minute... the cabin crew WILL check this bag for you free of charge... at that point, they just want to leave on-time, they aren't worried about your $25. But to be prepared, in case this does happen... make a new name tag for your bag each time you travel, with not only your name, address, phone, but also with your Airline name, record locator number and even flight numbers. Also put the same inside your bag... That way if the bag is (heaven forbid) misrouted with the hand-written tag on it, any airline employee will be able to help it find its way back to you. You'd also think this would go without saying... but don't put anything in a bag that even MIGHT get checked that is super critical... car or house keys, medecine, etc...
Posted By GV on June 21, 2010, 3:02 PM
AA wants to charge us for flying standby? Fine. Now we should get a $50 rebate every time they change a departure time. With all those departure time changes, if you can get a person out on an earlier flight, do it. It frees up seats for last minute paying passengers on another flight, plus its good PR for the business.
Posted By June on June 25, 2010, 4:08 AM