What About the Customer?

The last time I flew was on American Airlines and I watched as passengers jostled each other to claim limited over head storage space. Not trusting airline baggage handling many had carried on as much baggage on as they could. Now American is charging for every bag. I can only imagine what the carry on situation looks like now. Why not just charge more for the ticket and eliminate the fees. Maybe part of the problem is the customer. We will shop for the lowest fair and then give in to paying more for hidden fees. But does that make the customer happy? When I collected my luggage after my flight I found out why so many people tried to hand carry their luggage. I had an old Samsonite bag and the top had been ripped off. This was some feat. The bag had a steel band that supported the shell and the handle was also steel. The remains of the handle were still attached and I was amazed to find how well it was constructed. The bag was twenty or thirty years old and the amount of reinforcing and thickness of the steel meant that an incredible force was applied to the bag to damage it like that. I not sure how newer bags are constructed but the handle was way over engineered. Under normal use it would last hundreds of years, well beyond the life expectancy of the cloth cover. I do appreciate that I did get my bag back. The routing tag was attached to the handle. And someone had reattached the tag to the front of the bag. I image my bag disrupted baggage handling as the steel rivets were destroyed. I pointed out the damage to the baggage claims attendant. He actually laughed. Now that I must buy a new bag I am considering garage sales. Despite the damage to the bag the contents were untouched. I know the old bags are rarely stylish, but I doubt any newer bag using plastic instead of steel could have survived American Airlines that day.