Delta Airlines Starts Baggage Fee Wars and

Air Tran Wants Credit for Something They Were Going to do Anyway

Earlier The Dismal Political Economist reported on Delta Airline’s excessive charges for checking bags of soldiers returning to the U. S. from war zones.  The public outcry (not as a result of what The Dismal Political Economist said but from what others said) resulted in Delta raising the number of bags it will allow to be checked without a charge.

Not to be outdone, Airtran says it will not charge a fee for any checked bags by active duty service personnel.

"We make an exception to our checked baggage policy for members of the military who are traveling on active duty orders. As long as each piece of baggage does not exceed 100 pounds in weight and 80 inches in size, [military members] will be exempt from baggage charges, and will not be subject to excess, oversized, or overweight baggage charges," AirTran says in a statement quoted by the Journal-Constitution.

Well that’s nice, but wait a minute.  AirTran was recently purchased by Southwest Airlines, the airline that has spent millions on commercials that advertise their “no baggage fee for anyone” policy.  So presumably AirTran is just trying to get good publicity on what they were going to do anyway.


Congratulations AirTran, you just made a lemon out of the lemonade.