I’m not much of a frequent air traveler however, when I do travel – I don’t want to spend an extra $240 for bag fees on a roundtrip ticket.  Let me put it this way, I booked a ticket with a reputable, “I hope we won’t crash” airline to fly from Phoenix to Fort Lauderdale 3 months ago.   I’ll tell you, I walked up to the counter to check in with my fiancé, handed out tickets to ticket agent, she started typing away and processing our tickets.  We’re so excited to get on the plane and jet to paradise (no, not Fort Lauderdale… The Bahamas) to check out our where we’re getting married in February and meet out wedding planner and all the fun stuff that comes along with that.

Back to the counter, the agent asked “will you be checking any bags today?”  Yes, we have 4 bags…  She then got a huge smile on her face, rubbed hands together and said,  “How would you like to pay for your bag fees, credit card or…?  (I swear she stared drooling out of the side of her mouth like she just got back from the dentist getting a cavity filled)  I cut her off and said, “what bag fees”?  Sir, to check your bags on this flight its $120, how would you like to pay for that?

I had a heart attack fell on the floor, starting convulsing… After I recovered from said heart attack, I calmed myself down, talked it out with my fiancé a bit, sucked it up and put the $120 on my credit card.

Now, we’re on the plane, I’ve started drinking already, granted it was only 10AM, but I needed something to help with the pain..

Our trip was great, had a fabulous time on the beach, relaxing for 6 days, enjoying the sunshine and each others company..

…Now the trip is over. Not yet ready to get back to reality, but will be nice to be home however.

We’re all set, packed up, called a cab to get us from the hotel..  Got to the airport, walked up to the ticket counter gave the very nice lady our tickets, she asked us, “Will you be checking any bags with us today?”  Yes, we will be checking 4 bags today.

The next words out of her mouth were the most unexpected words I would hear,  “That will be $120 or your bag fees, how would you like to pay for those today?”

Holy $*@#$% I feel another heart attack coming on…  I said to the lady behind the counter, I already paid for those in Phoenix. No Sir, I’m sorry, you only paid your bag fees for one way.  WHAT!!!!!  Are you kidding me??  I have to pay another $120 for bag fees??

Yes, that’s correct sir, how would you like to pay for that today?

At this point, I’m so frustrated I stared laughing in fear that I was going to do something stupid at the airport and end up in jail.

I gave her my credit card, ONCE AGAIN!!!  She ran the card and said, “thank you sir, I hope you have a wonderful flight”.  YEAH, WHATEVER LADY!!!

So after all of this, we were sitting on the plane, I said to my fiancé you know what, “we just paid $900 for roundtrip tickets that should have only cost us $650.

Again, I started drinking again, to ease the pain…

I have two words for every airline out there that charges bag fees… CON ARTIST!!

You may have to take out a PayDay Loan to pay your bag fees….

If you have a choice in choosing an airline that flies to your destination, I would recommend Southwest Airlines for your travels…

I hope you enjoyed this story. I still haven’t recovered from this completely. If anyone has recommendations on how to get through this, feel free to respond.

Safe travels everyone…

Are you one of those people that has a Blackberrys, iPhone, lap top or other electronic device connected to your hand at all times?  Being fully connected with the internet has become the norm, and if one does not have access for more than one hour at a time… we (yes, WE) all go crazy!!!!! Knowing this craziness, airlines are now testing Wi-Fi availability on their planes.    Various U.S. airlines have been testing this phenomenom for about a year now, however all others are now scrambling to get on board with this. Initially this is going to be free, however once all the kinks are ironed out you can expect this to be hitting your pocket book.  According to MSNBC, “Alaska Airlines is asking those who use the free test service to take a survey, which includes a question about how much they’d be willing to pay. A Southwest Airlines spokesperson says the airline will start testing fee structures once technical testing is complete, perhaps this summer.” So how much would you be willing to pay to have non stop access to the internet? I think the Leadpile crew would be willing to pay a little extra for the convenience, however let’s see what the airlines try to make us pay.

With surging fuel prices, the airline industry is in dire condition. Even before the rising fuel costs, the industry as a whole was in pretty bad shape. Through it all, there has been one shining (and profitable) star. You can probably guess that I am writing about Southwest Airlines. They have been profitable, and remain profitable because of shrewd business decisions and good customer service.

Well, they have made another good decision, and this one touches in our world. Like everyone else, they want to drive as much traffic as they can to their website. Of course, their way of building traffic is not traditional, and excellent out of the box thinking. They are sponsoring the upcoming Midnight Gaming Championship. The ages for these participants are 16-25 years… not exactly your frequent business travelers.

The marketing message is about their desktop widget and their weekly email. Of course, the participants have to register for this event, and I can guess you know where that is done… their company website. This appears to be another great business decision by Southwest Airlines… exposing future travelers to their company and their services. Based on their track record, you would have to predict this will be successful.

We are having great success with email marketing and list management at Leadpile. This can be used to build traffic and/or be more transactional and create sales. Please let us help you and your company become the Southwest Airlines of your industry.