I’ve been recovering from pneumonia so an in front of the tv
more than usual and I saw two travel related stories that I can’t pass up put
my two cents in about. First SPIRIT AIRLINE is now saying they will charge for
carry on bags up to $100. So, we pay to check a bag and we pay to carry on a
bag …. This is making the idea of FEDEXing your luggage not only more
convenient, but also cheaper. I felt the charging for a checked bag was going
to push the carry-on to this limit. My last 4 flights they announcement has
gone out that they will not charge you if you volunteer to check your carry on
because they have more carry-on than they have space for. Sure enough as I
board I see a pile of suitcases being tagged to go into holding. It’s extra
work, greater chance of loosing luggage and certainly not cost effective. If
the airlines had just left the first checked bag free there would not be this
major switch to carry-on. I can see for charging over a certain weight, but
honestly, people need clothing when they travel. I saw one guy (on the news)
who was at the check-in counter with his bag open and he was putting on layers
of extra clothing to accommodate the carry-on rules, and said he’d just take
them off and hold them in his lap since it was a short flight! What is SPIRIT
thinking? This is the same airline that last year announced they were going to
charge to use the toilet, but the outrage made them back off on that one… for
now!
Another part of the story or maybe it was a different story
was about charging based on weight, but the confusing thing about it was that
if you were a 140 pound person with a 50 pound bag you would pay a fee, but if
you were a 300 pound person with a 50 pound bag you would pay nothing. Now that
doesn’t make sense. We all know that weight burns fuel so why should the person
with less weight be charge more than the one who is actually causing more fuel
to be burned? Then came the issue of an obese person paying for two seats so as
not to impose on the person next to them. I have compassion for those who
suffer with obesity, but I also believe in being fair and do not see how it is
fare to the person who has paid for their seat to then have to contend with
another person, a stranger, whose body also takes up part of their seat and
their flesh presses up against yours. It’s just not right to impose that on the
normal size patron. So, is our politically correct obsession taking us to the
opposite end where the rights of the standard weight individual will be sacrificed
so as not to hurt the feelings of the obese?
Both these news items made me shake my head at how we have
lost COMMON SENSE.
