Exact Change is Suggested

I am a sports journalist by trade. Inevitably I travel a lot. Whether it’s catching the last flight out to Pittsburgh to cover the Steelers after the Super Bowl or hopping the red eye back from an interview with Dwayne Wade in Chicago, I find that I sleep as many hours on an airplane each month as I do in my bed. That is about to change my friends.

US Airways announced yesterday that they will begin charging seven dollars for their “power nap sack”. To put it plane the Gestapo of air-travel is going to charge you seven bucks to use one of their pillows and blankets on the plane.

US Airways stated in their announcement that they are trying to raise money to stay afloat with the decline in travel do to the current economy. It’s a brilliant plan isn’t it? It’s so simple a moron could have come up with it. Make up for the lack of travel revenue by making consumers not want to travel at all.

From experience US Air has poor customer service and even worse hidden charges and fees. Just to run through the big ones you get to pay for every checked bag you bring with you. After you pay the 15 dollars for the first bag and 30 for the second if you so choose, don’t forget you get to shell out the same amounts for your return flight. Whatever you do make sure you don’t try to stuff everything in one oversized bag because if it goes a tenth of a pound over 50lbs you will be charged 50 dollars each way without a discussion to be had. (Ok so maybe I was the guy in the bathroom putting on an extra layer of the heaviest clothes in my bag to make weight the other day, but lets not bring up bad memories.) If you decide to carry on your bag make sure you aren’t planning on using planeside valet because that is only available for first class customers. Yes, that’s right your bag will be checked and you can find it a half an hour after your arrival at the baggage claim carrousel, and it may even be in one piece. Really it’s not that big of inconvenience to drag the thing through security checkpoints and make it all the way to the gate before they say there is no room left in the overhead bins and all other bags will have to be checked.

If they don’t get you with the baggage fees there is always the two-dollar drinks (seven for the stronger stuff) that will be offered to you in flight. But now they have gone too far! Now you have barged right into my flying bedroom and ripped the covers right off of me! Now not only are they taking the shirt off our backs with ticket prices, baggage charges and so on, but now they are charging us for the blanket to cover up with afterwards. As the charges continue to climb and increase to the point that a quarter slot may soon be placed next to the reading light and the air nozzle please remember, “exact change is suggested and appreciated”.