It's a big business and, to 99.99% of big businesses, you are a number. You're not a person. It doesn't matter who you are just so long as they get their money. This is not surprising to me at all.
My one question would be, why would soldiers be paying for their way home? Shouldn't the military be paying for that?
If I go on a business trip and get charged a bag fee, my company covers that expense, I'd expect it to be the same with the military. I know the military used to fly a lot of planes themselves but it seems like they found it cheaper overall to use commercial airlines.
It sounds like they were over the military bag limit by 1 and were mischarged by someone. I don't see a problem with them being charged for excess baggage but it shouldn't be coming out of their own pockets.
If they were traveling in something other than coach, the 4th bag would have been allowed. As far as the gov't picking it up, IA, however, the airline person isn't going to send the bill to the gov't. This is only Delta. I wonder if United or any others would have or has charged.
No the airline isn't going to send the bill to the government, that is how reimbursement works. The soldiers themselves shouldn't be paying out of their pocket and even if they got charged for a baggage fee, they should get reimbursed for it. I still don't see what the problem is as Delta is a commercial airline, the soldiers were flying coach, had 1 extra bag, etc. So Delta now increased their bag limit to 4 bags but what happens if the next soldier has 5 bags? They will get charged a bag fee as well. It makes sense for a commercial company to charge for their services, whether or not their customer is military personnel. It looks like they were already giving some leeway at the 3 bag limit without charge for military.
The more bags that people have, the more it costs for fuel as well as the more space they take and less space they can use for other things including any potential cargo services they do.
And if the military isn't paying for all their flight services including potential luggage fees than I think that would be a pretty major problem.
The more bags that people have, the more it costs for fuel as well as the more space they take and less space they can use for other things including any potential cargo services they do.
Hey Delta Airline - Great Way to Treat Returning Soldiers!
