Fleck wrote:
Updating our recent, as of yesterday, experience with United to Kona from Toronto.
I will preface my comments here, by saying normally, I'm a savvy and experienced traveler with bikes. Been doing this for a long time and typically would NOT stand to pay what we paid. But, we booked for Kona late this year. And I used points for the flights for my wife and I (ie - next to nothing for the flights). The timing and the connections for the flights (with United) we did use, worked for us. Normally, I would have done something different.
The United $150/bike ($CAN) at Pearson Airport in Toronto seemed non-negotiable. I fly a decent amount for work and pleasure, and I never get wound up, and am always super-nice with every airline employee I encounter along the way. We nicely explained to the Check-In Agent that UA now had the highest Bike Fees in North America by far. I shared that, I fly a great deal with Air Canada(AC) - AC's Bike Fee is $50, that I have AC Status and it's worth noting that UA and AC are Star Alliance Partners! The agent, thought the UA Bike Fees were "crazy", seemed genuinely, interested in our situation, felt sorry for us . . . . . but still ended up charging us $150 each for our bikes!
Now, as I said these were extraordinary circumstances for us. I would never have got this far with this, as I would never have booked with UA, if I was paying full price for the airline ticket in the first place.
The rich irony of this is that in the past, because UA and AC are Star Alliance Partners, is that in the past when we have gone to Kona, and been paying full price, we have been flying "United", but the first leg of our trip, usually to LAX would be "Operated by Air Canada", thus we check in, in Toronto with AC and the bike fee, was only $50 - and that's all I've ever paid in the many times heading to Kona!
it used to be that, even when there were bike case charges, that did not apply to intl. which yours is. so, while delta, alaska, american have gotten more liberal with bike fees, united has actually gotten stricter, taking away benefits they previously granted.
exactly two-thirds of our readers profess an airline loyalty. part of a loyalty program. of those two-thirds, 30 percent are already with a bike friendly airline. of the remaining 70 percent, 16 percent say no, they don't want to, or cannot, change from their bike unfriendly airline, while 54 percent say yes they have the freedom to, and intend to, change to a bike friendly airline.
the crazy thing is, if i'm a 1k flyer with united, i'm flying how often with my bike? 5,000 out of that 100,000 miles? i was a united frequent flyer for 30 years, typically what was back then called "premier executive" status, which i think was about 75,000 miles flown a year. i would absolutely change out of principle. if you don't value what's important to me, why should i give my loyalty to you?
Dan Empfield
aka Slowman