Price Per Pound: in bone? Blood? Teeth-grinding frustration?
$90 for 10 pounds.
That's what Delta Airlines wanted to charge us tonight for being 10 pounds over their 50 pound per bag limit. Of course, that was just one of two bags. The other bag was only 28 pounds. "Can we apply the shortage on one bag to this heavier one?" Nope.
So the oblivious "I guess I can't give a shit about your customer experience, I just collect a paycheck " counter clerk encouraged us to move clothes from one bag to the other. Forcing other customers to continue to wait in line while we played Musical Baggage. Pass me the panties. Here, stow the tampons in your carry-on. Oh, but you can't carry on the hairspray. It's more than 3 ounces!
He suggested that we should have brought a third bag. Really, Einstein? That you'd have charged me $30 for, mind you, AND which would have forced us to somehow maneuver THREE bags a person through clotted parking garages, mass transit, surly traffic at the curb, and in long queues waiting to check the fucking thing. That is such GREAT customer service! Baggage wrangling plus hurry-up-and-wait! Brilliant!
The physics of this shift-the-panties proposition defy any attempt at logic. We were carrying THE SAME WEIGHT. They just want it distributed into various bags. Which makes it harder on the customer. They are already shafting us with per bag fees now, in addition to the cost of the seat. Already making us jostle for seats on over-booked flights. No meals. Can't carry your own water. SERIOUSLY, airlines? You wonder we left you in droves after your planes were flown into buildings? You treat your customers like cattle on the one hand, and pack horses on the other.
Wouldn't it make more sense to give a total weight limit? Presumably their concern is WEIGHT, after all. It can't be space in cargo, since two bags will take up more room than one. Where is the logic? Where is the concern for the customer, who pays the fares that line the pockets of the CEO and the shareholder? Where is the fucking capitalist drive in such a hare-brained scheme? I can fly to Europe for a MONTH, with the requisite baggage for a trip of that length, and not pay a single baggage fee. What, the laws of physics don't apply in Europe? Crossing the Atlantic somehow makes everything ... lighter? Oh, don't get me started on that.
I consider a new rule: no trips that aren't feasible by car. Fuck the environment. Fuck the common experience of folks sharing space and a trip's experience. I want the peace and quiet of my own car, with my own music, where I can bring whatever luggage I want to stuff into my car, and I can go at my own pace without rushing to make the gate closure and then sit on the tarmac for who knows how long. Or be bumped because some airline in their infinite care and concern for the customer sold my seat to three people. Last one to the check-in counter is a rotten egg!
The real rotten egg is, collectively, the airlines. With Neanderthal thinking like this? They all deserve to fail. Just like the Detroit automakers. And good riddance.
Want to know who to fly to avoid the absurd Pass the Panties game? Baggage Charges by Airline - US
(at http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/blog/3801089/airline-baggage-fees-chart-updated/)