Charging Military $100 Checked Bag Fee: Generous? Not so much.
American Airlines has agreed to now waive their $100 3rd checked bag fee for military personnel. Previously they had only waived the fee for the first and second checked bags and felt that this policy was “generous.”
“I am not aware of any ability by our agents to waive an excess baggage fee, even for military personnel—since they already have the common checked bag fees waived in our policy,” [an American Airlines spokesperson] said. “Otherwise, our policy is very generous as you can see, and intentionally so.”
After recently receiving some bad press they’ve changed their tune.
“We always understood that soldiers traveling on duty were reimbursed by the military for the fees on required excess baggage. However, after recently hearing of the burden the military reimbursement process put on soldiers traveling to war zones, the choice for us to forgo payment for a third checked bag from the Department of Defense was clear,” said Tom Del Valle, American’s Senior Vice President.
Despite American Airlines’ previous stance that the military should be covering baggage expenses, the fact remains that policies like this hurt the soldier who generally has to jump through a lot of hoops to get reimbursement (and obviously has much more important things to do). Whether or not the bill should be on the military or the airline, most would agree that it shouldn’t be on the soldier. So kudos to American Airlines for addressing the problem realistically (rather than letting it get lost in a sea of bureaucracy and backwards PR speak).
UPDATE: American Airlines Agrees To Waive Extra Bag Fees For Soldiers [The Consumerist]
Photo by ReneS
by Jenni Chasteen Marketing Assistant · August 29th, 2008 
1 response so far ↓
The airlines just don’t get it and never will. Well, all but Southwest since I believe that Southwest never charged for that extra bag. The men and women that protect our country and and freedoms are not simply going to Key West for a week and decided to take extra shoes for a nice dinner. They are typically traveling to all parts of the country and world with required gear and bags to perform their job and should never have been charged that extra fee.
I understand the need to charge extra fees and nickel and dime treatment that has become all the rage in the airline industry, but leave the soldiers out of it and give them a pass. If the airlines can’t find it in the budget to let the 3rd bag fee slide for a soldier returning home or reporting to duty, pass the hat. I would expect that the extra fee would be covered before the hat got passed row 4.
By the way Airlines, it would also be poor form to charge a soldier $4 for a snack!
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