2007:A Baggage Odyssey
Posted on February 9, 2007
It is one of the best uses of music in a movie ever. In Stanley Kubrik’s classic “2001: A Space Odyssey, a bunch of crunky old rocket ships drift around space waltzing to the Blue Danube. Why does that make me think of airline baggage: “Look, there’s a flaming chunk of Samsonite reentering the atmosphere… and, over there, a big Tumi sailing past Saturn.” In fact, there’s an old joke that the rings of Saturn are made up of lost baggage. By some estimates, airlines lose 10 thousand bags a day.
Well the US Department of Transportation, steel jawed watchdogs that they are, want to do something about that. While you and me and the bag on the moon are crying for a passengers “bill of rights,†they are bravely raising the passenger baggage damage limit from $2,800 to $3,000 a bag. $200 bucks! How many people you know have actually managed to squeeze anywhere near that out of any airline?
But leave it to British Airways. If it you make it so damn expensive that you won’t check a second bag, then you won’t lose as many bags. Right? Brilliant! “The World’s Favorite Airline” (which has the ring of “The Artist Formerly Known as Prince†about it) will, starting February 13, charge up to £240 (US$470) for a round trip for that bag. Of course, that only applies to those who can least afford it, economy passengers. This was announced at the beginning of the year, and we are only hearing about it now. Next week passengers will show up at the airport and surprise!, if they are paying a deep-discount fare, that could just…double. British Airways calls it its “simpler baggage policy.†This means that you will probably not be doing much shopping in UK unless you can squeeze your new found treasures into one bag with all of the woollies you will need for London in February.
Baggage, by the way, is a major cost and this may be a sign of things to come. Spirit Airlines in the US is starting to charge $10 per checked bag. But $470?. With British Airways passengers, again, are caught holding the bag.
2007:A Baggage Oddessy [2:34m]: » Filed Under Airlines, Audio, News, Travel Biz
