Tue, Sep 16, 2008
Protest Airline's Latest Effort To Bleed Customers Dry
Saying that United Airlines
management is trying to treat its customers as ATMs, on Monday the
carrier's pilots said they strongly oppose the airline's plan to
double the fee it charges passengers for checking a second
bag.
The pilots maintain the new charge amounts to a taxes increase
on passengers... at a time when a stimulus is needed.
"There they go again," said Captain Steve Wallach, Chairman of
the United Chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association. "The
management at United should be trying to improve conditions for
passengers, not finding backhanded ways to charge them more.
Passengers do not like hidden fees, for good reason: It makes them
feel like they're getting taken advantage of."
Wallach added the proposed new costs would most impact families
and people traveling on vacation.
Instead of punishing United's passengers, he said, the airline
should try to reduce overhead costs, rationalize prices and flight
schedules, and eliminate excessive perks and bonuses for
executives. Continuing to nickel and dime customers, he added, is a
great strategy to get them to fly on another airline.
One could argue this is just another effort on the part of
United pilots to make their airline -- and, in particular,
much-reviled CEO Glenn Tilton -- look bad, as those pilots fight in
the court of public opinion against the
lucrative paychecks and bonuses that management
collected as pilots took deep pay cuts to keep their
airline flying.
Then again... one could also argue United would serve itself
better by not giving pilots
such easy fodder to launch their
protests...
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