Luggage Restrictions
The airlines have figured out the best way to make money is not through ticket sales, but through add-on fees. Half of all airline profits come from fees, according to a recent study.The most popular are luggage Restrictions.Most airline baggage policiescall for a charge of at least $25 for the first checked bag, and at least $35 for the next (each airline makes its own rules), but that is just the beginning. If you take along just onebag that is deemed oversized by the airline, that cheap $350 flight could end up costing you $700, all because of airline rules and restrictions.Most airlines luggage restrictions allow a checked bag as large as 62 linear inches. That figure is arrived at by adding the length, width and height together. A common luggage size is 30 inches by 18 inches by 14 inches, which together total 62 inches. Perfect for best tooth whitening checking, or so many passengers think. However whenthey arrive at the airport, they get an unpleasant surprise.The airline personnel check adhearance to baggage policies by measuring the luggage, too. Sometimes their measurment won’t watch yours. The desk personel’s tape measurecomes up with a combined total of 64 inches. How could that happen? Well, airlines don’t measure luggage like you and I.They get the same 62 inches of the bag itself, like you and I, but they also add in the height of the wheels -1 inches- and the thickness of the handle – of an inch- bringing their total measurement in not at 62 inches, but 64 inches, triggering oversized checked baggage fees.Passengers checking oversized baggage typically are charged an extra $150, each way for a total of $300. Add in the original baggage fee of $25 and you get a total of $350.