| Re: Airplane travel with bicycles
Matt,
It is not that the airlines see golfers as wealthy, though the greens
fees at a lot of courses keep out the riff-raff. A fair number of
business travelers carry golf clubs, and airlines are all about
catering to the business traveler. Not wanting to hurt their bread and
butter passengers, airlines allow golf clubs for free for domestic
travel. If a lot of business travelers starting taking bicycles with
them then you would see airlines getting friendlier towards bikes.
That said, I think you will see a lot of additional fees, and I would
not be surprised to see golf clubs get hit with a tariff. In 2003 only
one major US airline showed a profit (Southwest). United, America, US
Air, and Delta are all teetering on the brink of closing shop
permanently. They need to bring in more cash to survive. Part of it
is poaching on their competitors by lowering prices hoping to make it
up in volume, Has not worked so far. They have tried to emulate
Southwest to a small degree, but too small to make a difference. All
the tricks to do better volume are not working, so at some point they
will need to cut costs more and bring in more revenue. And on the
latter front, some have changed the rules for excess baggage to include
bags heavier than 50 lbs. I think additional fees will crop up, and I
see no hope in additional grace for bicycles in this atmosphere.
- rick
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