Pack light: American will weigh your carry-on
Is your carry-on bag overweight?
Uh oh. Now you have to worry about how much your carry-on bag weighs — at least, on American Airlines.
American, you’ll note, on June 15 will begin charging its non-elite customers $15 for each checked bag.
But it’s also turning an eye toward those fat carry-on bags.
American, like most airlines, limits the dimensions of carry-on bags — in this case, it’s 45 linear inches (height plus width plus depth).
But American also limits carry-on weight: Your bag must not weigh more than 40 pounds.
“If someone shows up at security with too many bags or one that is too large or heavy for carry-on, they are being sent back to the ticket counter to check it,” Tim Smith, a spokesman for American, wrote in an e-mail to me.
At least they don’t have to wade through the security area again. They get a special card like the one pictured above and they get to go to the head of the line, Smith said.
As of this afternoon, the website for United Airlines, which today announced a $15 per bag charge for checked luggage, didn’t show a weight limit for carry-ons. But stay tuned. Weight is the bad boy when it comes to fuel consumption. Remember, you’re just the customer and it’s not about you.
Meanwhile, if you need to slim down your bag, see our recent story at latimes.com/packinglight.
– Catharine Hamm, Los Angeles Times Travel Editor
(Image: American Airlines)
5 Comments on “Pack light: American will weigh your carry-on”
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June 16th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Who is weighing the bags? Where are they weighed?
June 18th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
AIRLINE BAGGAGE FEE WON’T FLY WITH THIS FIXED INCOME GRANNIE!
Clara DeMattio, 89 of Reseda, CA says she won’t pay the extra $15 to
check a suitcase on her U.S. Airways flight to Pittsburgh this summer to visit her sons and attend one of their wedding.
“I live on a fixed income and the airline ticket was so expensive I
don’t want to spend more money than I have to as the cost of living and
travel has gone up much higher than I can afford so I guess I’ll have to only bring a small carry on of clothing for my two month visit”.
She is a retired defense industry factory employee originally from New Castle, PA
story submitted by daughter,
margaret
NB: This comment came in by email
June 19th, 2008 at 11:14 am
The airlines make the rules, we all suffer.
No one likes the fee per bag idea. It’s a rip-off and an insult. But as consumers we are powerless to do anything about it… except not fly any airlines that charge this fee. Granny should never have booked the ticket. Now that’s power. Because of a $15 fee, the airline would have lost the $400 travel booking! Multiply that by millions of disgruntled travelers. I shudder to think.
The free bag check-in has gone the way of the half gallon tub of ice cream (it’s now 1.5 quarts for the same price), and the one-pound can of coffee (now 13.5 oz.). Times change, but consumers getting the short end of the stick by greedy companies never goes out of style.
June 20th, 2008 at 11:11 am
What really angers me is the incredibly arrogant, hostile attitude American Airlines is projecting to its customers. Reading these pronouncements from AA reps about how they’re going to send customers back to the ticket counter, make them do this, do that, is like listening to a drill sergeant berate a bunch of draftees about how he’s going to shape up their sorry, flabby butts. Your customers aren’t the problem, American Airlines. They aren’t conscripts, either. Fortunately most of my travel destinations are served by Southwest or foreign airlines. Also, I think AA’s arrogance would make a dandy marketing angle for that Calfornia bullet train initiative.
November 4th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Oh sure. Do the security inspection, then send you back to ticketing (and where every else you want to go), then let you by-pass a second trip thru security. Nothing like good old American TSA to make me feel safe on their planes!