Do you have a second bag? That'll be $50 roundtrip please.

Today, while double checking that my flight to Las Vegas is still on time tomorrow, I noticed a little red link on Travelocity's homepage that said: United, US Airways Baggage Changes. I'm flying US Airways tomorrow, and United is "my" airline, so I clicked on the link to see what had changed.

Lo and behold, these two airlines have decided to reduce themselves to the level of low-cost carriers the world around! They have both announced a reduction in baggage allowance from two free checked bags per passenger to ONE free checked bag per passenger. If someone wants to take a second bag, then that person has to pay $25 extra EACH DIRECTION to check that second bag. Can you believe that crap?! I think this is absolutely ridiculous. I might have to switch my allegiance to another carrier, which means I have to get rid of my United credit card and memorize another Frequent Flyer number and all sorts of other nonsense. Besides the annoying little things, changing my preferred carrier will result in losing the partnership they have with airlines like Austrian and Lufthansa. Plus United goes to Cedar Rapids pretty frequently! ARGH!

Just wait...in three to five more years they'll do what Ryan Air or SkyEurope have done: the baggage will not only be restricted to one per person, but they'll reduce the weight limit from 50 lbs to 32lbs (~15kg) and charge for the extra weight too.

*$!#&@%!!!!!