United Airlines now charging to check any bags

Soon they'll be charging us for bringing on a carry-on too...

Yeah! Just finished reading the bad news one hour ago from United! $15 per bag! No food, No bags! You better start to ship your clothes ahead of time! It might be cheaper that way!

Ps: I am giving a green light only as a matter of public info., and a read light in writing because things has gone too far already.

Yikes!

In most of Europe and Japan they have a series of high speed trains -- most certainly more luxurious than our airlines. I know, how can it get more glamorous than flying coach on Delta! But some how those crazy kids in Japan and Europe managed to do it.

I guess in retrospect it might have been a bad idea to totally let our own train system go to complete and total shit.

And next they will be charging us for breathing in the air on the plane.

Uggggh! I have a flight on United in August!! Good thing I bought my tickets before today... now all I have to pay is $25 for my second checked bag!

This is getting slightly ridiculous, don't you think?

quite honestly , when i see how americans travel , with big ass suitcases and more shit in them than the average resident of any 3rd world country owns in total , i like fees like this - hopefully they will encourage more people to travel lighter .

Good point malathion -- less is more.

I recently took a plane over Memorial day and I only took a backpack. Thank goodness I did because there was a massive line for people who had to check their bags. That would have taken forever.

Less baggage weight would (I think) mean less fuel consumption per plane per trip which (I think) might help airlines get through until fuel prices come down. So I can see the airlines point here. They can't control the cost of fuel and the more weight they carry means the more fuel they have to use -- so they have to make up the difference somewhere.

But a better solution would be to upgrade our train system. A series of high speed cross country trains sounds like a great way to travel to me.

Who wouldn't rather take a high speed train as opposed to an airline?

Right, time to wear all your holiday clothes in one go, I'm pretty sure there are no regulations against it.

I agree that it wouldn't hurt people to travel lighter, but the airlines already charged for bags weighing more than a predetermined weight (typicallyy 50 lbs.). So, this obviously isn't meant to deter people from packing heavy. I think it's scandalous to charge people to check the first bag. Carry-on is already a nightmare, and will only become more so. I would rather the airlines just take the $15 and apply it to my plane ticket than make me pay in cash when i check in. I sense a disaster of lines, confusion, and begruddled customer service in our future.

Eff United Airlines. Eff the entire airline industry.

Sigh. Airlines just keep finding new ways to charge you. Pretty soon you're going to need to take out a loan just to fly somewhere!

(I guess I won't be going home for the holidays this year.)

I believe that we should all go back to the horse and carriage system. Less gas use, and you'll get to see all the splendors of this great country. Great in natural views, and not political ones of course. What about international travel you say? I've got 5 words for you:
Row, row, row your boat...

Oil may not be everything but it sure causes pain to everything and everyone.

Absolutely pathetic for an industry that is subsidized millions of our tax dollars.

This is injust. We should weigh the person and the bag together.

Time for a diet. I like it.

We will save gas, money, food and can feed the world

Thats exactly why I don't take those airlines. Now they are just driving more people away.

I think capitalism will fix this problem. If it gets too serious, everyone will stop usin United, and they will be forced to end that policy. I don't think 5 ollars is that big of a deal compared to what we pay for everything else in our consumerist economy, and the usless things we buy. This situation could, however escalate into something much worse that we would have to deal with.

Southwest Airlines still manages to have decent air fares and pretty good customer service. Is it arrogance or ignorance that makes the "non-discount" airlines NOT emulate their business model?

When America West and U.S. Airways merged, AMWest's customer service went all to hxxl.

This is worrying...A dear friend of mine is trying to escape the poverty of his country and move to America, and will barely have enough money for the tickets from selling almost everything he owns. Why do companies like this have to take advantage of people in need?

Guys, the airlines have declared bankruptcy, haven't they?

I don't think they're doing this because they want to cheat us out of our money.

Cell phone companies -- yeah, THOSE assholes are cheating us. But I don't think the airlines have much of a choice.

I think they may be stuck behind the old eight ball on this one. They've declared bankruptcy, fuel charges are going through the roof and they've got no choice really.

Even with the extra fees they may be still losing money on every flight.

It might be time to nationalize the airlines?

I don't understand why the airlines are deliniating the cost of luggage. Why don't they just add 15 bucks to the price of the ticket? Nobody would know and nobody would bitch about it.

Nationalizing the airlines is a bad idea!
No need to commit to communism... Government is always worse than a private company.
Oil prices may come back... no need to resort to something as horrible as that.

There's no need for TSA anymore, it's too expensive to attack the U.S. by plane.

Well, I guess this is their way to make up loss profits from people not flying and fuel prices. With the profit on airline tickets being so low, this just about equates to said profits per ticket.

is this about gas prices?
everyones gonna divide their luggage into carry-ons and the weight will be at the top rather than the bottom of the plans.
ridiculous.
they could have just added the $15 to the ticket price and not said anything. no one would have noticed.

Now is that some bullshit or what?

Just wear all the clothes you'll need on the plane! The underwear might be a little tricky.

they're not the only airline to do this. and, if you are a high roller or frequent flier, you don't pay for checked luggage

I wonder if they loose them, will they charge us more for a finder's fee?

Do yourself a favor and fly Virgin America. Ambient blue and purple lighting when you enter the plane, personal lcds with almost everything you want. Progressive, responsive airline.

Well I guess when removing one tomato from each salad stops working they have to do something huh? It's kind of like the gas companies, we can complain all we want but if we want to get anywhere in a timely fasion we have no other choice.

I'm just going to bring 3 bags on the plane.

I don't know if you guys realized this, but currently our airspace isn't open to foreign competition. If Lufthansa or Emirates were allowed to compete with our carriers, the service would be much improved.

Yea I'll take the orient express over this

They're obviously not just doing it to encourage packing light.
They should just bring down the max weight per bag to 40 lbs or something and raise the fee for going over. That way passengers will try to keep it light to get their bags on for free, and the airlines will still be making bank off us.