Travel China and Beyond

Airline Elite status has potentially new advantage

Well folks there is a new crazy thing the airlines are experimenting with — they are trying to offer new low cost ticket fares for which you will not have a seat assignment or checked luggage allowance. Currently most airlines allow you to check in for “free” two pieces of luggage each of 50lbs. (it used to be just until a year ago that in business class on some airlines - e.g. American, you could check even up to 2 pieces at 75 lbs each)

Now, per news articles published by New York Times, (here is a link) United, and other airlines are thinking of this new experiment — to charge you fees for an advanced seat assignment and for checked in luggage…. I find this quite strange as this “ploy” to disguise costs as optional fees, will certainly be quickly seen by travelers as not good at all and will backfire on the airlines…

At the same time, hold on to your frequent flyer status as most likely it will shield you from those new “junk fees” (as Clark Howard (clarkhoward.com) refers to those types of fees). I gave some suggestions about obtaining frequent flyer status here, you may want to review it. Happy Travels!