If your bag fits in the box, your carry-on is of approved size. If it’s too big, you either pay a fee or check the bag, depending on which airline you’re flying, and in which country.

Well, British discount airline (and bmi subsidiary) bmibaby has apparently been messing with their gauges. And (gasp!), the discrepancy in measurement is not in the passenger’s favor.

A leading budget airline may have unfairly charged thousands of passengers because its measuring devices for hand luggage were too small.

Customers of bmibaby were routinely asked at departure gates to put their hand luggage in a metal cage to ensure it met size restrictions.

Many failed the test and had to put the bags into the hold at a cost of £60 for a return flight.

Just delightful. The airline imposes the fee, then puts its thumb on the scale to ensure that it’s collecting some cash, even from those who are working within the rules to avoid the surcharge in the first place.

Even if we don’t assume malice, the airline has a responsibility to ensure that its scales and gauges are accurate.

If you’ve been charged an oversized-carry-on fee by bmibaby in the past, consider contesting the charges or demanding a refund. £60 isn’t chump change.

And maybe it’s time to start packing a tape measure.

Beginning Aug. 16, when travellers book two consecutive weekend nights at any one of the 4,500 IHG hotels worldwide for stays between Sept. 1 and Dec. 30, 2010, their checked bag is free. Travellers can participate each and every weekend they stay with an IHG hotel during the “Check It Free” promotion period, when they pay for their hotel stay using their Visa® Card.
[...]
Download a rebate form via www.ihg.com/freebag and submit it with copies of your hotel receipt and baggage fee receipt for the same trip postmarked by Jan. 31, 2011.

Rebates are in the form of a prepaid Visa card, which carries monthly fees if you don’t exhaust it within six months.

The rebate has quite a few moving parts: 1) weekends only, 2) 2 night minimum, 3) Q4 only, 4) pay with Visa. Break any one of those rules, and say bye-bye to the rebate. Plus: 5) expiring-balance on the rebate itself.

Given those restrictions, this is potentially useful for weekend getaways. But for weekend getaways, won’t a carry-on suffice?…

So this ends up being great PR for IHG, but not necessarily something that will benefit the masses. That said, if you can map this out in advance, and you can make this work: Go for it!

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The company is touting it as the answer to runaway airline baggage fees, with the added bonus of direct-to-destination shipping. You take the packed box to a UPS Store, pay your fees, and off you go.

But that’s just it: you pay your fees. Hefty, heft fees.

For starters, you pay for the box itself. Granted, it’s intended to be reusable, so it’s perhaps a bit sturdier than your regular brown cardboard box. But it’s still a box. And it costs $12.95 for the small box or $17.95 for the larger one. And that’s if you can find it — not every UPS store has it, so you may need to order it from the company, and pay shipping.

Then there’s the cost to ship the box itself:

To ship the small size box at a maximum weight of 55 pounds between Los Angeles and New York on UPS’s ground network would cost about $66, including the price of the box, Rosenberg said. It would take about four days to get there. The large box would ship for about $92, she said. Delta currently charges $25 for one bag weighing less than 50 pounds that is checked in at the airport.

55 lbs. is frankly an odd amount to be using as a metric, since airlines in the US typically run up to 50 lbs. I guess that makes the UPS option look better?

In any case, paying $25 for a bag that travels with you, and that doesn’t take four days to get to its destination, starts to look pretty good. Sure, you have to carry the bag to the hotel or car. But is that worth $75 or so?

Pass me a tinfoil hat, but the UPS offering is so bad, it’s almost as if the airlines put them up to it, to make the airlines’ checked baggage fee look like a good deal.

Starting June 1st, Cardmembers with a Gold, Platinum, or Reserve Delta SkyMiles Credit Card from American Express—and up to eight travel companions within their reservation—will automatically receive a first checked bag fee waiver upon check-in for all Delta and Delta Connection® flights.

This only applies to general members of the SkyMiles program, of course, since elite-level members are already waived out of paying the baggage fees — for two bags.

Assuming a single checked bag, checked both ways on a roundtrip, Delta Amex holders would save $50 per person on the itinerary. (Up to eight travel companions?! Big crowd. But that could work out to quite a savings.)

The cards charge annual fees — the gold, platinum, and reserve cards charge an $95, $150, or $450 (!) annual fee, respectively — but if you’re not an elite member of SkyMiles and you’re going to be traveling with Delta (and checking bags) anyway, it may be worth signing up for a card.

Spirit Airlines will charge as much as $45 each way for a carry-on bag, adding a fee that bigger airlines have yet to try.

The charge will apply to bags in the overhead bin. Personal items that fit under the seat will still be free. Spirit said it will add measuring devices at the gates to determine which carry-ons are free and which ones will incur the charge.

The new charge is $45 if paid at the gate, and $30 if paid in advance, and begins Aug. 1. Spirit said today that it reduced its lowest fares by $40 on average, so most customers won’t really pay more to fly.

Spirit also charges to check luggage.

Nice spin re: reducing fares by $40 on average. This coming from an airline that often pitches $9 base fares with cutesy sale names.

Airfare comparison just got harder again. A fare on Spirit may now look cheaper than a fare on, say, JetBlue, despite the JetBlue fare including carry-ons and one checked bag. A “deal” may not be a deal once you add in all the fees.

As I’ve argued time and time again, there will be people upset with Spirit for doing this, but until people wise up and start voting with their feet (and wallets), this will continue.

(Thanks, Irv!)

Related:
- Spirit’s latest indignity: Middle seats for a $5 fee
- Spirit Airlines keeps it classy with their M.I.L.F. sale
- Spirit Airlines’ CEO flips his customers the bird
- Consumer victory: Spirit reverses its “web convenience fee”
- Is Spirit Airlines’ new club worth joining?

From their press release (emphasis added):

For the low price of $25 per item each way, customers can send their bags, golf clubs and skis ahead to their final destination via FedEx standard overnight delivery.
[...]
Customers booked for travel between March 18 and March 29 within the continental United States on at least one United-operated or United-marketed flight are eligible. Sale prices are limited and available until 5 p.m. EDT on March 19 or while supplies last. Travelers may purchase the Door-to-Door Baggage option up to 10 days before departure.
[...]
A customer may ship up to nine bags at the limited $25 price, per bag. Weight, size and other restrictions apply.

Nine bags at that rate??! Wow. Cheap. If you’re moving cross-country, this deal is for you.

But… you have to reserve this by Friday the 19th. Which is a stupidly narrow window of opportunity if they really wanted people to take advantage. Needless to say, this won’t help a lot of people. But someone may benefit.

That is, I “like” this fee within the context of existing checked-baggage fees. Had that line not already been crossed, I would have been firmly opposed. But baggage fees are reality in American airspace, alas. (Southwest is still fee-free; JetBlue charges $20 for the second fee, but nothing for the first. Reward good behavior if you can.) But if you’re flying United, and you can’t fly with carry-on alone, then you’re looking at a fee.

And some — just some — people who would be paying that fee might benefit from this new program.

Dubbed Premier Bags, the deal will particularly appeal to tour groups on the same itinerary, or to a large family with lots of bags:

With Premier Baggage, you and up to eight companions traveling under the same confirmation number can check up to two standard bags each without fees, where applicable, every time you travel within the United States or internationally on United® or United Express® operated flights during the year.

The purchase of a Premier Baggage annual subscription does not waive fees that would ordinarily be assessed for oversized and overweight bags and does not cover the cost of checking more than two standard bags.

The deal seems better suited to large parties than to an individual who takes multiple trips. Since you pay $20 for the first bag and $30 for the second, an individual would have to take 5 trips with the full complement of two bags each just to break even. (Or, if you’re able to plan ahead and pay for your checked bags online, you get a $5 discount per bag. In which case even 6 trips with two bags each don’t quite break even.) Depending on your itineraries, you could be at Premier status before completing your five or six trips — after which you’d pay nothing for checked bags.

What concerns me is the phrasing: “introductory price.” If this is a trial balloon, then look for the price to go up to $299 or higher. It might — might! — still be a value for some people at that price, but that number of people will grow smaller and smaller.

So how does the $249 subscription grab you? Hit the comments.

Upgraded: Baggage allowances on Gulf Air
This isn’t something you’ll see in North America anytime soon: Gulf Air is raising the weight limits for passengers with (complimentary!) checked baggage, effective October 1, 2009. And the increases aren’t small: +10 kg (22 lbs), in each class. That raises the total weight limits for First, Business and Economy to 50 kg, 40 kg, and 30 kg, respectively. Silver-level frequent fliers in Gulf Air’s frequent flyer program get another 15 kg; gold members get another 20 kg. Individual bags are still limited to a whopping 32kg (70 lbs) each.

Upgraded: Virgin Atlantic’s website
Sure, airline websites have been selling hotel reservations and rental cars. But now Virgin Atlantic is trying to go further by offering “add-ons” like passports and visas. Services are provided by CIBT, either via the Virgin website or call center. (Or, perhaps more accurately, centre.)

Upgraded: Paperless boarding passes at US airports
The number of airlines and airports that permit scanning boarding passes from your mobile device keeps increasing. The TSA blog compiles the who/where. Here’s the bottom line, airlines and airport codes:

Continental: IAH, DCA, EWR, BOS, AUS, SAT, CLE, LGA, LAS, SFO, ORD, LAX, SAN, FLL, TPA, PDX, PHX, CLT, MSY, RDU, MCO
Delta/Northwest: ATL, LAS, MEM, MSP, DET, SLC, CVG
Delta only: LGA
Northwest only: IND
Alaska: SEA
American: ORD, SNA, LAX

Upgraded: Punishments for abusive passengers in-flight
The FAA is increasing the size of the penalties it levies against unruly passengers, like the man who “dropped his pants and exposed himself to the female passenger sitting next to him, then punched her, according to an FBI affidavit.” Good.

Upon landing at Bali’s airport planes will be taken to a remote aircraft parking area where the plane and its passengers will be sprayed with disinfectant. Passengers will then be disembarked and subjected to thermal scanners.

However, the Jakarta Globe is reporting that Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport is now requiring all arriving international air passengers to undergo a blood test. Nyoman Murtiyasa, the head of the airport’s health office, quoted in the Jakarta Globe said that all passengers arriving from overseas would be required to take a blood test at the airport.

Thermal scanners? Sure. Blood tests for everyone? Extreme. They make United States passport control seem downright lovable.

Downgraded: Airline uniforms
The airport administrators at Nepal’s Kathmandu Airport are taking an unusual step in an effort to reduce bribery: They are banning pockets in airline personnel uniforms. In a few months, expect reports of secret back-room sewing operations and black market tailoring.

Upgraded: Onboard duty-free, online check-in
Remember when airlines gave you extra miles for online check-in? It’s not coming back, alas. But Virgin Atlantic will give you a coupon for £6 off onboard duty free shopping when spending £30 or more. Whoo?

Downgraded: Jamaican sand wars
500 truckloads of white sand were stolen from a Jamaican resort development site in July 2008. Now, it’s going to trial, and other resort owners are among the accused. (hat tip to Veronica Stoddart)

Upgraded: Overview of disparate carry-on luggage rules
Steven Frischling at Flying with Fish has compiled a great list of 65 airlines’ carry-on baggage restrictions. Be sure to check the rules before your next flight.

Upgraded: Cruises with a theme
Downgraded: Pirates; Conscience
Finally, a cruise concept for the bloodthirsty: A Russian company is sponsoring pirate-hunting cruises. $5000 gets you on board, and you can rent AK-47s and buy ammo. The money quote: “They are worse than the pirates. At least the pirates have the decency to take hostages; these people are just paying to commit murder.”

Upgraded: Eclipse travel
THIS is a concept trip I could do: Special flights to view the upcoming solar eclipse. (Thanks, Kim!)

I’m admittedly a skeptic, though I jealously wonder how fat the margins are in this business.

On the one hand, I see the logic: If it’s wrapped tightly with plastic, it’s less likely to break open or be damaged by moisture. Some of these services, such as SecureWrap, also include some luggage insurance in the cost of the wrapping.

But how much protection is this, really? An airport security official looking to inspect your bag’s contents will just cut the plastic right off. A determined thief will do the same. How much protection is this, really? And for 6 euros (the price charged at Madrid) or 9 dollars (the price at JFK) per item, is this money well spent?

Hit the poll and the comments below the video.

(Reading this via the RSS feed? Visit the site to vote.)