Feeling the Love from United

If you still harbor any quaint notions that major airlines consider all their customers VIPs, here’s a funny little factoid to help disabuse you. United, as many predicted, is following American and will impose a $15 fee to check a bag for travel on or after Aug. 18. OK, to fess up, I was wrong about predicting when this would happen, thinking the rest of the pack would wait to see how the experiment goes at American before jumping in. As blogger and columnist Joe Sharkey put it today on his blog, “All truly bad ideas, it seems to me, eventually prevail.”
So the United release hits PRNewswire at 10 a.m. EDT. Less than four hours later, the airline starts e-mailing its most frequent fliers to tell them not to worry. “It is our pleasure to inform you that you and any companions traveling with you on the same reservation can each still check two bags free of charge, up to 50 pounds (23 kg) per piece. As always, you can skip check-in lines at the airport by using EasyCheck-in Online, even when checking bags.”
The love continues: “Also, if you are traveling in United First or United Business, you are invited to be among the first to board your flight so you can find ample space for your carry-on bags, by using specially-designated Premium Boarding lanes marked with a red carpet. Or choose to board at your leisure, knowing that you’ll have front-of-the-line access at any time.”
So here’s a question: Are new fees to check a bag an inducement to get and keep one’s status in a mileage plan? Or do they just annoy even further?
http://businessweek.com/lifestyle/travelers_check/archives/2008/06/feeling_the_lov.html