Check it or Ship It?

skyflyer8 said:
Would you rather pay to check your bag, or pay $149 to ship it?

https://store.united.com/traveloptions/control/product?product_id=UM_DTD&category_id=UM_DRTODRBGG

How does this save money as the site claims?

Think the other airlines will follow suit?
Click to expand...

Absolutely do it, but ship it 2nd day or ground for a lot less without giving a penny to the airline.

When you add up the bag fees and $450 in fees to use your free ticket for a $280 flight...

http://consumerist.com/5086868/united-adds-800-in-fees-to-560-trip-loses-customer-for-life
 
When we went to Alaska, we shipped 800 pounds of our favorite necessities both ways with very little trouble....

I had a $25 used computer monitor get dropped on the return trip and it caused it to have a "shadow" when you turned it on, and my space pen fell out of the office supply box....I do remember wondering if the single camping pad I had wrapped around the outside of the 50 pound box was enough, apparently it was not, in fact, enough.

I would definitely recommend shipping with your favorite provider over the airlines. Although, I agree, the $149 sounds a bit high. The 800 or so punds of stuff to Alaska was only about $900 if I remember correctly because most of the stuff we shipped was "media" (e.g. books and similiar items that are flat and easy to ship.)

--Matt Rogers
 
I travel light with only a carry on. If they start charging for carry on bags I will certainly fly GA and carry what I feel the need to carry. I see this as a way for the airlines to make more money through their partnerships with the shippers. This all started when meals on long flights were replaced with snacks. In the golden days of aviation the airline was about service and the passengers were not bothered paying for for quality service. Lately though with the fuel prices outrageous (except for Southwest because they hedged their fuel prices) the carriers had very little choice but to start charging or start losing even more money. If I get discount fares then maybe I could see paying for the bags but if I'm paying full price for the tickets I feel the airlines should provide service to the customer or find a cheaper way to do business (such as cutting their executives pay instead of the pilots and support staff). If you look at Circuit City they decided that paying their people $20 an hour and cutting their commission would save the company money when they then could hire people at minimum wage and not pay a commission. What ended up happening is that the customer was a burden to the support staff and sales people did not care if circuit city sold anything at that point so the staff started avoiding people when they came in the front door whereas before they would rush to the customer offering assistance and probably sell alot more than the customer expected to purchase. Instead of having experienced, knowledgeable people circuit city ended up with crew that did not have a vested interest if the company sold anything, the experience was laid off and the company entered a downward spiral.

Experience and loyalty as well as taking care of your employees and support staff has its benefits and if Circuit City is any indication this latest move by the airlines just may be the nail in the coffin. But WAIT!!! Maybe the government will bail them out AGAIN. Or maybe they won't. I for one am tired of the the CEO's and executive staff making a killing and leaving the company just to see it plunge into bankruptcy while they go off and enjoy their millions.

What ever happened to the customer being number 1 and always right (even when they are wrong)? My wise grandfather once said that if you treat people with respect and dignity you will get further in life and end up with alot of friends and people that love you. At his funeral there was standing room only and people that knew him from years and years of service in several different industries. So when dealing with friends or business I try and treat everybody with the respect that I would expect.

Now for the airlines and their financial issues I think that alot of the issues they face are brought on by their company practices. Where are the 10 and 20 year veterans of the airline industry? Oh they are still there, struggling to make it and probably getting paid less than they were just 10 years ago. Now that the price of fuel is going down I don't see the airlines changing things. You see the policies have not changed and at the end of the day they are still in the same situation as before. They are not saying fares will remain higher so they can recover their losses. If they were not unreasonable to their employees I suspect that flying commercially would be the in thing again and the experience and dedicated staff would show a more positive light on the airlines.

I can't count the number of times I have heard airline employees discussing taking a salary cut, reduced hours, etc. Its a shame really because in any business the people (customers, employees, pilots and support staff) make the company as strong as it is. Even with higher rates people would pay for quality service.


OK I'm done..... [/rant]
 
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