DEL.ICIO.USUnreliable airline baggage scales can cost travelers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Friday, January 02, 2009
It’s one of those hassles of modern-day travel: You plunk your suitcase on the airline’s scale and hope it’s not too heavy.
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Russell Granthan / rgranthan@ajc.com
Air Jamaica scales weighed a reporter’s bag as 54 pounds, but other scales had a different reading.
Russell Granthan / rgranthan@ajc.com
The same bag weighed 52 pounds at Delta.
Russell Granthan / rgranthan@ajc.com
At Air Tran, the bag weighed 51.5 pounds.
RUSSELL GRANTHAM / rgrantham@ajc
Delta employee Martha Coles weighs a passenger’s bag before a flight from Hartsfield Jackson International Airport last week. Most baggage scales checked at the Atlanta airport last week by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution gave consistent weight readings, but other airports were more erratic.
If it does top 50 pounds — a typical weight limit before hefty charges kick in — you face a last-minute scramble to redistribute stuff to your other luggage or an extra charge of as much as $90 each way.
Most airlines have hiked overweight bag fees and added new ones in reaction to soaring fuel prices, including recently created fees that most customers pay to check even one bag.
So with the stakes getting higher and higher, can you trust that the airlines’ scales are accurate?
The answer is yes — mostly — at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, according to an informal spot check of dozens of airline scales conducted last week by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
A reporter who loaded a small suitcase with two 20-pound dumbbells and a bit of padding found that most of the 77 baggage scales checked at the Atlanta airport last week gave readings in a narrow range from 51 to 52 pounds.
Of the 36 Delta Air Lines scales checked, all registered 51 or 52 pounds except two. One showed 53 pounds and another registered the weight as 45 pounds. On most other carriers’ scales, the test bag weighed in at 51.5 pounds, although one scale each at AirTran Airways and US Airways registered 50.5 pounds.
However, airport scales aren’t always that consistent.
Last week, the same reporter discovered that three of Delta’s scales at the Oklahoma City airport gave readings that differed from each other by several pounds.
Likewise, inspectors in other states have sometimes found a significant share of baggage scales at major airports had errors. The Arizona Republic reported in November that more than half of the US Airways scales that state inspectors examined at the Phoenix airport failed to pass.
Likewise, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel recently reported that one in four airport scales in the south Florida area failed to pass inspection from 2005 to mid-2008.
Airport scales that give unreliable readings can end up costing travelers because most airlines have upped their fees to compensate for the spike in fuel prices earlier this year. Delta now charges $90 extra for each bag weighting 51 to 70 pounds and $175 for 71- to 100-pound bags.
Discount carrier AirTran Airways charges $39 and $79, respectively, for luggage in those weight ranges. Most other carriers’ charges start at $50 for bags weighing 51 to 70 pounds.
“Clearly, this becomes more important now,” said Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst with Forrester Research. “An airline needs to be fair because a customer shouldn’t be charged unfairly, but an airline should be able to charge if it’s justified.”
He said airlines should check their scales at least twice a year and, ideally, every quarter to ensure they are accurate, because “they do take a beating.”
Delta spokeswoman Chris Kelly said the airline complies with Georgia Department of Agriculture requirements to recalibrate its scales every six months. She said the erroneous scales in Oklahoma City were recalibrated last week.
How tightly does Delta adhere to its weight limits?
“The line is 50 pounds,” Kelly said. However, she said, “our airport customer service agents are empowered to do what’s right for both the business and the customer.”
AirTran spokesman Tad Hutcheson said the carrier recognizes that its scales get a lot of wear and tear and inspects them more frequently than required. “We need to calibrate that scale,” he said of the one that read one pound lower than the others.
“There’s so many stories that come out about scales that don’t measure accurately. We don’t want that,” Hutcheson said. He said supervisors “are given leeway” to decide whether to waive baggage fees when needed, but the carrier generally sticks to its guns.
“The rules are the rules. If it’s over 50 pounds we’re going to charge them,” he said.
Baggage fees can add hundreds of millions of dollars to airlines’ bottom lines. Most carriers, including Delta and AirTran, recently also began charging customers $15 for their first checked bag and $25 for the second bag.
Such fees are worth about $300 million and $200 million annually to American and Continental airlines respectively, Harteveldt said. AirTran has estimated the fee could generate up to $100 million annually. Delta hasn’t provided a specific estimate.
Harteveldt said the checked-bag fees have caused more passengers to take only carry-on bags on some trips. But it’s unclear, he added, whether some passengers are also trying to reduce add-on fees by consolidating more stuff in fewer, bigger suitcases, which could lead to overweight bag fees if they’re not careful.
Airlines will likely keep the new baggage fees even though jet fuel prices recently have dropped along with plunging crude oil prices, Harteveldt said. He believes airlines may even raise the fees over time, or institute higher fees for longer trips.
“The fees are here to stay as long as the planes need fuel to fly,” he said. “They like this additional stream of revenue. It allows them to keep the base fare low.”
Delta and AirTran aren’t planning any changes for now.
“We have no additional changes to our fee structure at this time,” said Kelly, the Delta spokeswoman.
Hutcheson said AirTran got few complaints after announcing the new fees.
“Most people understand it’s been put in place to repair the damage done last year” by high fuel prices, he said.
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