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...

FMI: www.alpa.org/ual, www.glenntilton.com