The airlines are making it worth your while to ship your bags to your destination instead of checking them on your flight. In the long run, it could work out to everyone’s advantage.
Even yours.
Not long ago, if you and your luggage arrived on different planes, it was because the airline had botched the handling of your bags. They were tagged improperly. They fell off the conveyor belt somewhere. The baggage handlers lost them in the sun. Whatever.
These days, travelers and their luggage increasingly are arriving on separate flights by design. Their design, not the airlines’.
Whether they go directly to one of the big freight shippers like UPS or FedEx, or to any of the scores of small luggage shipping companies that have sprung up in recent years, they’re basically thumbing their noses at the airlines — and often getting a better service in the bargain.
THE FIGHT OVER FEES
You know how we got here. In recent years, the airlines started charging to check your luggage. One or two even started charging for carry-on luggage. It’s all part of a firmly established trend by the airlines to tack on extra fees for services that used to be free, while claiming to keep their base fares low.
(And they’re not even doing that anymore. Base airfares are on a steady climb these days).
Bottom line: When it comes to flying nowadays, there are certain unpleasant realities of life:
- Add-on fees are probably here to stay.
- Those fees will be rising in the months and years to come.
- The airlines will devote considerable manpower, brainpower and willpower into making said fees as unavoidable as possible.
Passengers these days are resorting to everything from bringing a small car onto the plane with them and calling it a carry-on to wearing all their clothes for a week-long trip on their bodies.
(You can always spot the latter group. They’re the ones who look like the Michelin Man, only they don’t smile nearly as much.)
LOST LUGGAGE
The fact is, if you travel with a family that numbers more than yourself and a significant other, your chances of avoiding baggage fees are just about zero.
A lot of air passengers out there think the airlines should refund your baggage fee if they lose your luggage or are too many hours late reuniting you with it. None of this coupon credit toward a future flight nonsense; put the cash back in your hand. The Department of Transportation actually wants to put that into federal law.
Not surprisingly, the airline industry disagrees. Strenuously.
You can read their objections in detail on the site of the Air Transport Association, the airline industry lobby group. They’re in a PDF file found on the link labeled “ATA Submission of Comments to the Department of Transportation Passenger Protection Rule.”
Maybe they object because they raked in more than $3 billion in add-on fees last year, most of which came from baggage fees, and are loathe to give any of it back — but I don’t think that’s it.Might it have something to do with the fact that, on average, US-based airlines lose somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 bags a day — which works out to a whopping 3.5 million bags per year? Ehhh, could be!
That could turn out to be the mother of all refunds.
Nor does the picture get any better when you leave the United States. Airlines worldwide lose about 68,500 bags a day, an average of 25 million bags a year.
You know that vaguely uneasy feeling you get whenever you put a suitcase on an airline conveyor belt and watch it disappear? Now you know why.
Most passengers have gotten mad, but a growing number are getting even. They’re taking matters into their own hands, by taking their bags — and their money — out of the hands of the airlines.
BYE-BYE BAGGAGE HASSLES?
In turning to shipping companies, many are learning what only a relative handful of travelers have known heretofore: When you let shippers deal with your bags, it can make life a lot easier.
- Either you drop off the bags to the shipper or they come to your house and pick them up for you.
- The shipper takes all responsibility for getting them not just to your destination city, but to your final destination.
- The shipper delivers your bags to you, be it at an office, a hotel or a private residence.
If it’s a hotel, you may find them waiting in your room when you arrive.
No having to unlock anything for the TSA screeners as you depart. No standing at that silly aluminum baggage carousel after getting off a long, exhausting flight, waiting (and hoping) to see your cases coming around. No hauling your gear like a beast of burden out to the taxi stand.
At least one of the big boys, UPS, even sells “luggage boxes.” No suitcase? No problem…provided it’s not raining too much where you’re going.
When there were far fewer of these services, or travelers inclined to use them, luggage shipping cost more than checking your bags with the airlines. They were used mainly by travelers with over-sized gear, like golf clubs, skis or scuba equipment. Now, as more irritated air passengers are turning to luggage shippers, the prices are coming down.
EVERYBODY SAVES
And if you’re the sort who packs heavy, it’s no contest, because the airlines penalize you with overweight baggage fees, over and above the new check-in fees. Since the luggage shippers are treating your bags as freight, there are no such penalties.
So instead of paying $115 or more to your airline for a suitcase weighing more than 50 pounds, you pay $30 or so to the shipper.
Like I said, no contest.
But this also figures to save the airlines some money. Do the math here.
If enough of their passengers opt to ship their luggage, that means fewer bags on each airline flight. Fewer bags means lighter airplanes. Lighter planes burn less fuel — and fuel costs are among the airlines’ greatest expenses.
Who knows? They might even take advantage of that lower their prices, or reconfigure their seats so that a passenger larger than a leprechaun can actually be comfortable sitting in Coach.
What the hell, I can dream, can’t I?