The Travel Detective

Gouging, Bumping and Frequent-Flier Fraud

Boy Waiting AirportFebruary 9, 2008

UNITED’S GOUGING SCHEME

After the last week in travel news, we may all just need some therapy. The airlines can’t help themselves—they keep beating us up.

United Airlines is now charging most of their passengers an additional $25 to check a second bag. The airlines call this “a la carte pricing”; I call it gouging.

Even worse is that every other airline going watch to see if it literally flies, and if it does, they’re going to do it too. The only people who are exempt from this are the people who are members of United’s elite frequent-flier program. Wow, isn’t that special? You can’t redeem your miles, but you don’t get charged for a bag.

You know what I say, there are only two kinds of bags, carry-on and lost. This will force people to do what I’ve been doing for years, which is courier my bags. Use FedEx, UPS or a dedicated luggage shipping service to get your bags to your destination.

This is skyway robbery. Every airline uses the fuel excuse. No, it’s not a fuel excuse; it’s a service excuse. They want to make everything on that plane a revenue center, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s wrong.

PASSENGER BUMPING AT AN 11-YEAR HIGH

Crying KidIf you thought that was insulting, how about this: The number of people bumped in 2007 reached an 11-year high. You know what that means?

Not only are the planes overselling, which the airlines have been doing for years, but there’s a reason why you can’t redeem your frequent-flier miles.

Guess what? They don’t ever want to displace revenue passengers, therefore they overbook every flight by 30 percent, they bump people, and here you are with your hard-earned 25,000 miles and you can’t get on the plane.

AIRLINE MERGER-MANIA SPELLS BAD NEWS FOR TRAVELERS

Want some really bad news? The Northwest-Delta merger is about 10 days away from being announced.

Once that happens, it will probably push Continental into serious merger talks with United. And what does that mean for you?

Waiting Passengers Fewer flights, more crowded flights, higher fares, and you can kiss your frequent-flier miles goodbye.

If you’ve got frequent-flier miles, in an airline account or a credit card account, get them out of there. Redeem them for a flight you don’t even want to take. You just want to get a ticket.

Because even if they don’t cancel the programs, they’re going to increase the eligibility limits, making it almost impossible for you to redeem them. It’s basic math—if the number of passengers bumped is at an all-time high, if airlines are going to merge, why would they even want a loyalty program if there’s no competition?

This is the time to cash in your miles. Even if it’s 330 days ahead of time, even if you don’t want to go to Newark. Get that ticket. Otherwise, you should go to the store, get a picture frame, and hang it on the wall. Because that’s all that’s going to happen with your frequent-flier miles.

You can watch the Today show on February 13 where we’ll talk about the great frequent-flier rip-off.

Listen to this: The value of American Airline’s frequent-flier program has a market value of $6 billion. The entire market capitalization of the entire airline is $5 billion. You think they made some money on us, for our loyalty? Well, where’s their loyalty in return? Guess what, I can’t find it.

Get those miles and redeem them. If you have those miles on a credit card account, like American Express, transfer them immediately to an airline account, because sometimes that transfer can take up to three to four weeks. Every day, they’re going to find another way to up the ante.

From Peter Greenberg Worldwide Radio

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