$15 to life
There’s no reason for people like me to be loyal to an airline anymore.
I’ve earned nearly 30,000 miles with American Airlines over the past six years since I graduated from college, and closer to 70,000 with Star Alliance airlines in the same time — first US Airways, then United when US’s merger talk got heavy. The *A programs have gotten me to Jacksonville, Montreal, Toronto and (this fall) Nebraska for free. But last week, United announced that it would match US in no longer crediting 500-mile minimums per segment. Had that rule been in effect all this time, I’d have earned maybe two-thirds of that total.
The AA miles? I’ve been trying to spend those for about a year. But with the current high loads, there aren’t any seats. Then Wednesday, American announced that it would both reduce domestic capacity further by 10-12% and begin charging all non-elite passengers $15 for the first bag checked.
Checking baggage so you can take a week’s worth of clothes, a change of shoes, and a full bottle of shampoo on a weeklong trip is not optional. It’s a requirement for transporting conscious human beings rather than self-propelled lumps of cargo.
Last month, my brother (moving cross-country for his first job out of college) asked me what kind of miles-earning credit card to get and what airlines he should target his travel toward. My answer? “Straight cash, homey” — and fly whoever will get him home on time at a tolerable price. 2-3 round trips a year home won’t be enough to make elite, and even if he ever scraped up 25,000 miles by spending $400-500 extra over that time to be loyal to an airline or its alliance, good luck trying to use them.
Why be loyal? The benefits aren’t there, and inside the airport, the airlines and TSA are in a race to see who can dehumanize the passenger fastest. It’s fees, it’s 31” seat pitches bruising my knees, it’s high load factors that cause even minimal weather or maintenance cancellation recoveries to cascade across days. It’s not informing passengers of a problem until all the restaurants and convenience stores in the airport have closed. It’s all this wrapped up in a package lyingly calling itself a full-service airline.
I’ve got an idea. Instead of charging an à-la-carte fee for checking a bag or for the privilege of a non-middle seat, how about airlines itemize out the cost of the frequent flyer miles I can’t use? This game’s been fun, but it’s over now.
22 May 2008 / 0 Comments / Tags: travel