American Baglady Airlines

American Baglady Airlines
A Weekly Eckstra Column

Welcome to the first-ever official edition of the Weekly Eckstra. As I write this I am flying over the American Southwest, on an American Airlines flight from Phoenix to Dallas which will hopefully connect me to a flight back home to Dayton. While some of you were predicting that the first column would focus on a certain long anticipated anti-balloon rant (still to come), I decided to instead describe my experience flying to Phoenix on Friday.

If you have not flown in some time you may not realize that like many airlines, American Airlines now charges you to check a bag. The fee is $15 for the first bag and $25 for a second. I am unfortunately not blessed with the ability to travel lightly and also had many materials to bring with me for my presentation (to the University of Dayton Phoenix Alumni Chapter). Thus the need to check a bag.

Despite the unnecessary revenue enhancement collected by American, the check in process was no problem. Boarding the plane was. You see, on this particular flight (from Dayton to Dallas) nearly every passenger decided to avoid checking a bag by carrying all of their possessions on board the aircraft. People had plastic shopping bags, duffle bags, laptop cases, overstuffed purses, pillows, and more. In addition, people had the large but just small enough to cram into the overhead bin after 30 seconds of grunting rolling suitcases.

The overhead bins quickly filled and a minor state of panic set in. American Baglady Airlines offered to check anyone’s bag for a fee, an offer no one accepted. People were angry when asked to put their bags in overhead bins past their seat locations where there was a little space (this would delay the deplaning process by at least 35 seconds). Passengers were rushing about stuffing their belongings in every possible opening.

Ultimately the situation did work itself out, although the flight crew could not close the doors and push back until all of the “Wal-Mart shoppers” had gotten completely situated. I honestly don’t blame the people for trying to save a few bucks during a recession and also avoid the risk of lost luggage. I blame American Baglady Airlines for creating the policy which produced the chaos. If revenue is tight, increase the airfare by $15 rather than shaking every nickel and dime out of us. And while you are at it – let’s find a way to actually let us listen to our "portable electronic devices" for the vast majority of the flight!