want greed? fly the un-friendly skies

Today is a day that I hoped would not come for the major airlines in the United States: United Airlines has decided to charge extra fees for a second checked item, and double their fees for so-called “oversize” luggage. The “oversize” bags count in their ranks thinks like ski and snowboard bags, golf bags and the like. The exception will be things like strollers and other things that parents lug around in their minivans to help keep the kids happy.

It’s a tad ironic that United is the carrier to start this, given that they carry a majority of the skiing and snowboarding travelers to Colorado, the United States’ number one destination for winter sports. The new fee structure charges $100 per pair of skis or snowboard. So on an average winter season flight into Denver, where roughly 50 percent of a plane is skiers or boarders, and the average aircraft holds 120 passengers, that’s a cool $60,000 in fees. Multiply that by the hundreds of flights the United operates into and out of Denver, and it adds up quickly. And while more often than not the airline wouldn’t charge for a ski bag if it was your only checked piece in the past, they promise to be more diligent about charging under the new system.

This move isn’t surprising, as United has taken a “charge for every last bit” approach to luggage over the past year. In the summer of 2007, they canceled their popular bike box voucher program, one co-sponsored by USA Cycling and the USOC, to the chagrin of many cyclists who carried USA Cycling memberships solely for the vouchers. So United takes down other organizations in its own pursuit of the almighty dollar.

This, my dear readers, is sheer, unadulterated greed – and an opening for the other airlines that fly into Denver International Airport. So here’s to Frontier, Southwest, Continental, Northwest, American, US Airways, Delta and the other airlines that hopefully won’t follow United’s lead on this. Given that United is big fish in the Denver pond, they also needn’t be competitive on fares, as they tend to set the bar for pricing into and out of Denver (even though Fronter and Southwest have chipped away at this somewhat, United’s abundance of non-stop flights means that they still own a majority of the “control” pricing for DEN).

If United is interested in cost-cutting, here’s one way to do it: pare down the upper-level salaries. Clean house a bit in terms of stratified management. Stop changing your airline’s livery every third year or so. Re-optimize your route structure.

And above all else, remember that people do have a choice in airlines – and that many of them, like me, will steer their business elsewhere in their future travel plans to and through Denver (as well as Chicago and San Francisco, United’s other hub cities).