
US airline to charge passengers extra to use overhead lockers - walterbell
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/us-airline-to-charge-passengers-to-use-overhead-bins/
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ryanackley
Just don't fly United. Of all the major carriers, they usually have the lowest
prices.

IMO, the reason they are the cheapest is that they suck really bad. No
legroom, antiquated planes, and terrible service. I always avoid flying on
United. If I get booked through work, I offer to pay the difference on the
next lowest airfare from a different airline.

~~~
jghn
When I fly for work it is typically United due to them being th cheapest. I do
not enjoy those flights one bit

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bogomipz
>"United claims the move, announced last month, does not amount to a new fee.
Those who want to stow their hand luggage overhead can still do so if they
choose the standard economy fare, it says."

Until they artificially restrict the number of standard economy fares and you
have no choice but to buy the basic fare and be subject to this new level of
absurdity. This is how it starts.

Rather than innovate and make more money by selling a better product the
airlines in the US anyway have settled on a strategy of removing basic
provisions and then selling them back as an "upgrade." It's insulting.

I'm tempted to say I just will vote with my feet. But the airline industry at
least in the US has seen massive consolidation in the last decade and the
choices for the consumer are becoming less. It's often just not practical to
"vote with your feed" and the airlines know this. United merged with
Continental which gave us this behemoth who is instituting this policy.

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electic
Next on the docket:

1\. Basic Air Fee. If you are obese, you pay more since you breathe more.

2\. Regular Seat Fee.

3\. USB/Power Adapter fee. Charge per watt-hour.

4\. Under seat storage fee.

5\. Bathroom Usage Fee.

6\. Pre embarkation cleaning fee.

7\. Post embarkation cleaning fee.

~~~
arethuza
Ryanair announces crazy schemes like some of those, which it has no apparent
intention of actually implementing, apparently just for the publicity:

[http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/17/travel/ryanair-money-
savin...](http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/17/travel/ryanair-money-saving-
schemes/)

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draw_down
The nickel and diming is one thing but now boarding will take even longer.
People clogging up the aisle fucking around with the overhead bins is why
boarding takes so long currently, and soon people will somehow have to
"authenticate" that they're allowed to use them so it will take even more
time.

Also if people traveling together have their seats broken up, they will just
bother other passengers to switch seats so they can sit together. (It's
implied that if you say no you're an asshole.)

Air travel just keeps getting crappier bit by bit.

~~~
jccc
I would guess that enforcement would just mean at the gate you couldn't take
through anything bigger than specified in the article.

Most people in that situation would prefer to keep the item with them or under
the seat rather than up in a bin.

~~~
draw_down
You can't fit much under the seat though. It's not much of an alternative

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kalleboo
As long as people keep picking tickets solely by sorting by "lowest price" and
no other variables, this kind of thing will keep on going.

~~~
dingaling
To be fair to 'people', the flight search engines do a really poor job of
permitting sorting by any other variables.

British Airways recently announced that they're modifying their 777 fleet to
ten-abreast seating, instead of nine, to bring them into line with other
airlines like Air France and Emirates. But if you were browsing similar
flights between those airlines you'd never have been told that BA offered an
extra two inches of seat-width, so why would you have chosen them?

~~~
wink
A hundred times this. If you're flying very rarely and your dates and
destinations are set... in my experience there's not even much choice between
a lot of airlines, usually 1-3 for a given time. So price is more like 'can I
move this one to one day later to save x%' \- I don't recall ever just
shopping around for different airlines.

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Apreche
GOOD. They should force everyone to check their bags already. Hell, just
remove the overhead bins entirely. Why do they even exist? All they do is make
boarding and deplaning take 20 extra minutes each. The time you have to wait
for the luggage carousel will be no big deal if you can just get off the plane
immediately.

~~~
awqrre
They temporarily lost my luggage before... I would much rather have it with
me. And it is much quicker then going to the carousel, especially if you
choose a seat close to the exit.

~~~
falcolas
This exactly. Not to mention they (United) already charge $20 to check a small
bag. This nickle and diming sucks.

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nunez
People will bitch about this as they already have, but Spirit and Allegiant
Air's massive profit margins have shown that the only thing people care about
is the price of tickets and this helps lower it.

Eventually, airlines will follow the single aircraft model (meaning aircraft
manufacturers will merge and jobs will get cut), aviation jobs will largely be
contracted out and, once the American airliners win their flags of convenience
battle, the glory days of being a pilot will finally be over.

Enjoy your snack packs.

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spraak
Ugh.. it was coming, wasn't it? says my cynicism. But that's unfortunate. I
wonder how long until there are more alternatives to the big airlines..

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wmeredith
This headline is a blatant mischaracterization. US Airlines is offering a new
lower fare tier for passengers who don't care where they sit and don't need
the bins. It's not a new fee. A less rage-baiting version would say, "US
airline to offer lower fares to customers not using overhead bins." But who
the hell would read an article about that?

~~~
rashkov
The problem with that is that no one shops directly on the airline websites
any more, at least not at first. Now this company's fares will appear at the
top of the list when you search kayak or google flights or whatever. Then you
order your ticket and don't realize the restriction until you're about to put
the order through. This works effectively well.

Then the rest of the industry feels pressure to do the same thing to remain
competitive. It's a race to the bottom and I think it's how we wound up in the
present situation of frequently paying for checked bags and not getting meals
included.

This is going too far though -- who travels for even a few days without an
overhead bag? And have you noticed how much smaller the size restrictions on
the overhead bags are now?

~~~
farzadb82
Agreed.

I don't have a problem with airlines creating cheaper seats that they can
market to a segment of customers.

What I do have a problem with is the lack of transparency of what you're
getting when you attempt to research and compare fares. In my opinion, this is
what the government should focus on.

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madengr
What's the deal with liquids being in plastic bags? Something to do with
x-rays interacting with the plastic to change the contrast of liquids?

I'm 6'5" with size 15 feet. I can't fit a damn thing under the seat in front
of me, much less my legs behind a seat. So sick of flying.

I'm sure fuel costs are at an all time low too, but profit still not enough.

~~~
PaulHoule
It's because they are afraid of substances like this:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetone_peroxide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetone_peroxide)

Note that that stuff is an explosive that contains no nitrogen, so it can't be
detected by common explosive detectors.

~~~
guitarbill
someone is going to figure out how to weaponize lithium ion and then those
will get banned, too. oh no, wait... that kind of, accidentally already
happened.

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bitwize
After flying United to Australia and having a miserable time of it, I used to
joke that soon United will introduce a fee structure in which for an economy
ticket, they will pack you in a cubic crate 80 cm on a side, and for an
additional $180 they'll upgrade you to a full cubic meter.

Now it seems much less an absurd joke.

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netfire
United isn't the first US airline to do this. I believe Spirit, Allegient and
Frontier all charge for carry-on luggage -- but you can get flights for $20-40
one way, if you buy direct. You get what you pay for though...

~~~
nunez
They are the first "legacy" carrier to do this. That's significant because it
means that every other major airline will likely follow suit if this works for
them.

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edwhitesell
This is some of the best travel news I've heard in a while. The entire
boarding process is the second biggest annoyance in US air travel today (TSA
being the first).

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drewg123
I have mixed feelings. I hate the nickel and diming, but ever since they
started charging for checked bags, the boarding / deplaning process has been a
nightmare. So if this speeds up boarding, it could be a good thing.

The other thing that they could do, which would garner good will, _and_ speed
up boarding/deplaning would be to offer a checked bag for free to everybody.
But I bet they are contractually locked out of that, as a free checked bag is
a perk offered by most airline affiliated credit cards.

~~~
jghn
I always wished they had charged for overhead instead of checked. Yes, there
are some conveniences to carry on but as you note it really breaks down when
everyone decides to use it

~~~
MiddleEndian
If there were an airline without any overhead bins at all I'd use that one for
100% of my flights.

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hsod
Interesting to compare the reactions to this with the prevailing attitudes
about cable bundling.

"Stop nickel-and-dime-ing me!"

"Stop making me pay for things I don't want!"

~~~
draw_down
Ehh, this is more like if the cable company started charging a monthly fee to
use the remote control.

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cyberpanther
Airlines are so stupid. They are basically going to force all the families to
Southwest with free bags. Southwest needs to market the crap out of this so
people know.

~~~
pawadu
Nope,

this will cause people to bring less garbage with them onboard which means
much faster boarding times which means more money earned which means Southwest
is sure to follow.

~~~
cyberpanther
If you can convince my wife to bring less garbage you should win a nobel
prize. I agree with you logically, that is what should happen, but in real
life and especially with families it doesn't happen. And when you sell to one
person in a family you get 2, 3, 4, 5 more tickets that come along. So that's
a big loss if you can't sell to families.

Also think about other groups that need to bring garbage. Musicians, sports
teams, high school trips, etc. They are giving away group business to other
airlines.

By definition when we travel, we usually want to bring something with us. Very
few people fit the use case of being able to exist from just one small bag on
a trip.

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PacketPaul
One more reason to fly SouthWest.

~~~
ssharp
It's not like Southwest doesn't have it's price issues. If you want to avoid
their seat lottery system, you have to pay $15 each way.

