Amtrak to start charging excess baggage fees
Who saw this coming? There are no fuel costs that need to be accounted for. There are no expenses with manpower to handle baggage. What the heck?!@#%! Amtrak announced new baggage charges as of yesterday, Oct. 1, 2015. But don’t worry too much; the free luggage allowance is more than most individuals can carry themselves.
Unless you’re moving your entire apartment via train, they should not apply to you.
Travelers are still allowed two small personal items, each weighing no more than 25 pounds each, and two pieces of luggage, each weighing no more than 50 pounds. That means you can bring your purse or backpack, a laptop bag and two suitcases — weighing a total of no more than 150 pounds — and not be charged anything extra.
Amtrak Train Days shows that people still love their trains.
For those of you who need to haul more, Amtrak will start charging a $20 excess-baggage fee for each carry-on and personal item above those limits. And each passenger can bring no more than two excess carry-on bags weighing no more than 50 pounds each.
Passengers traveling with children under the age of 2 are allowed an additional item for the kids, such as a stroller or diaper bag.
Tangled web surrounds United’s aborted Atlantic City routes
The dance between United Airlines and the New York Port Authority has become a legally tangled tango. The flight between Newark and Columbia, SC, is only a footnote to other possible wrongdoings. This is the kind of intrigue that mobster movies normally feature.
United agreed to fly to the struggling Atlantic City airport at a time when the airline was trying to please the New Jersey politicians who also control the much larger Newark Liberty International Airport, where 68 percent of the passengers fly United. The airline was seeking major concessions at Newark — lower rent, lower fees and a $1.5 billion extension in train service between the airport and New York City on the Port Authority’s PATH rail line.
When negotiations broke down in November, United canceled the flights and filed a complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration, contending the Port Authority was illegally overcharging the airline at Newark and improperly diverting airport revenue to Christie’s pet projects elsewhere in New Jersey.
10 ways monopoly airlines are actively trying to make your life miserable
America’s airlines are making more money than ever — record-setting profits. But, America’s passengers are more miserable and unhappy than ever. According to some, it may be part of the airline plan. They are making airline life miserable with the belief that passengers will pay to stop the pain. Some experts call it “calculated misery.”
In other words, customer dissatisfaction pays off big for airlines. The industry figured out that if it only made flying a nightmarish experience for the average traveller – one in which things like food and comfort come a la carte and at additional cost – customers would pay extra for even the most basic services. Airlines get to pretend that they’re offering customer choice, and passengers are duped into believing they’re spending more for premium service. It’s a case study in basic consumer psychology – this tendency to pay more for less and then somehow think you’re getting a deal – and airlines are capitalizing on it like never before.
Generally, if you are unhappy with a business, you may take yours elsewhere, but that’s no longer true for the air industry. Following a series of mergers over the last seven years, the New York Times finds that “80 percent of the nation’s air traffic is concentrated among four airlines – American, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines.” An Econ 101 student with a low “C” in the class might’ve predicted those mergers would result in consumers getting screwed.
Here are the 10 ways airlines make customers miserable:
1. Hefty checked-baggage fees
2. Exorbitant change fees
3. Being late
4. Overbooking
5. Expensive tickets
6. Limiting where travelers can buy tickets
7. Upselling on almost everything
8. Miserable boarding processes
9. Smaller seats and getting smaller
10. WiFi stinks
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.