American Airlines Takes Government Money & Then Raises Baggage Fees
Last week American Airlines said in a press release that it had received $5.8 billion in payroll assistance from the government. The amount they receive from taxpayers will be split into a $4.1 billion grant and a $1.7 billion loan. So how does the airline choose to thank Americans for the bailout money? With a fee increase, obviously!
American Airlines has just announced an increase of some baggage fees. This applies to transatlantic Basic Economy travel, as noted in the latest update here.
Bag fees between Europe, Israel, Morocco and U.S., Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Canada, Mexico, Caribbean (including Haiti), Central America, South America or connecting via Europe to another destination have been updated as of April 21, 2020.
For Transatlantic Basic Economy travel, a $60 1st bag fee applies for tickets issued on / or before April 20, 2020, and $75 for tickets issued on / after April 21, 2020.
This change means that means that someone flying in Basic Economy would pay $30 more, on a roundtrip for one bag. That would be $150, up from $120 for a roundtrip. The price for a second bag remains at $100, and the third and fourth bags still cost $200 each way for transatlantic travel.
Conclusion
This ill-timed $15 fee increase applies to Basic Economy travel to/from Europe, Israel and Morocco starting from April 21. You can still bring a free carry-on bag in Basic Economy. Also award tickets always include one free checked bag.
HT: AwardWallet
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The government money wasn’t for the airline but for the airline to pay unneeded flight attendants and workers. It does nothing to help the airline secure a solid footing and stability. The people who should be thanking the government are flight attendants, individuals who received the stimulus and extended unemployment benefits and recipients of the PPP and their workers. Airlines and their shareholders weren’t helped by government aid. They maybe should have laid off 95% of their work force instead of doing equity dilutions with the government getting a stake. The government aid was a bailout for overpaid flight attendants who were rated very poorly in terms of service compared to their European, Asian and middle eastern counter parts.
If the airlines had laid off 95% of their workforce, getting these trained and knowledgeable people back exactly when you want them is wishful thinking. Sure, some would come back just when needed, but some would move back in with family in another part of the country. Kind of hard to handle luggage or be a gate agent from a thousand miles away. Others would take jobs elsewhere and decide it’s not worth it to return. Some would go back to school, concentrate on having or raising kids, etc. Interestingly, your idea would bring back the senior pilots as well as the senior flight attendants that you complain about while bringing back less fresh faces. You can argue about the seniority system, but for now that system isn’t going anywhere. Meanwhile, the government money keeps airlines from having to fork out any of their own money for payroll, which is good for morale as well as throwing less people on unemployment. It’s always preferable to keep your people happy, since it’s not only the right thing to do but people are an asset. If they’re not, fire them like Southwest does as a unionized airline.
In the end the government is paying airline employees through this assistance the same they would through the extended unemployment benefits. It’s just a shame airlines have been painted by the media in a negative light when they are given less than PPP recipients but have to pay it back one way or the other and have to operate unneeded nearly empty flights that serve little purpose. Airlines are going to lay off 50% of their flight attendants in 6 months. I don’t see air travel returning quick unlike a lot of other businesses with pent up demand. There will be so much experienced labor available airlines aren’t going to have a problem. Airlines could have settled their labor issues by laying everyone off and rehiring them for fair wages that reflect supply and demand. As we saw with GM and the strike in October, the unions extracted very high wages and benefits for workers and GM is saddled with those labor costs even during trying times.
Nice move. Somebody get me a syringe.
What’s nice about the US airline industry is that you are not required to fly a single airline to get from point A to point B, unlike other countries. If you don’t like their fare structure, don’t fly them. See how easy that is?
Not always true – some smaller airports only have one airline available.