Posted on 03/04/2011 6:31:00 AM PST by re_tail20
Choosing to carry your luggage onto a plane instead of checking it with an airline might save you a few bucks at the ticket counter but it's costing taxpayers about a quarter-billion dollars a year. Don't miss these Travel stories
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told Congress this week that luggage fees have prompted more passengers to hold onto their bags, which means more items for Transportation Security Administration officers to inspect at security checkpoints at a cost of about $260 million annually.
"When you have to pay to check a bag it increases carry-on luggage and that means there is more to inspect at the gate and so forth for passengers to get on planes," Napolitano said during testimony before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security.
Napolitano was addressing a question from Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat and chairwoman of the subcommittee, who asked whether airlines should help make up for some of the extra costs.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Yeah...we wouldn’t want TSA to actually work a little harder would we?
Save a few bucks my behind. Keeps the TSA thugs from breaking more of my stuff and tearing the crap out of one more piece of luggage.
“Costing TSA millions”????
Since when does TSA produce ANYTHING, much less a profit???
Last time I checked....TSA is costing US TAXPAYERS millions of dollars per year!!!
Sounds like we can expect a “carry-on fee” in the near future.
Oh, yes. Of course. By all means. Pass the costs on to the airlines. Just don't pass them on to the passengers.
Errrrrrr.......wait a minute......
The TSA is costing US millions a year and should be eliminated.
To be followed by a "non-baggage-check-in fee".
D*mn, every time I successfully immunize my self from “lib logic” by reading a some real science (e.g., NOT climate change cr*p), I undo it by reading MSM drivel that could only have been generated by folks who should never have gotten past high school.
What a load of bull-Obama.
If the government hadn’t muscled its way into the baggage inspection business, the cost to the taxpayer would have been ZERO!
Of course, privatizing the TSA isn't an option....
Have the federal government create an entire tax-funded "industry" that creates all sorts of problems, then use those problems as reasons to give that "industry" even more power.
You could continue that cycle forever, or until the federal government owned and ran everything, whichever comes first.
Take this as a parable: Whenever the government takes over some private activity or service, the quality and availability of that activity or service will suffer!
And, a fee-determination fee.
Carry-on-itis has struck. People shove oversized bags overhead, and now it takes an extra 15 minutes to take off because some bags have to be stowed below, and an extra 15 minutes to get off the plane while they wrestle what bags could be shoved overhead out of there.
They should charge for CARRY ON’s, and ENCOURAGE you to check your bags.
Carry on madness HAS to stop!
Because they're not able to rip-off and then fence as much stuff from our checked luggage?
I’d like to see the airlines get rid of checked baggage fees (except for overweight luggage) and not permit anything bigger than a woman’s purse or maybe a small tote bag onboard. (one that can still fit under the seat in front of them) It would save a lot of time getting people on & off the plane.
Well, DUH !
Stop charging for checked bags and we’ll stop carrying on so many.
(hint: that’s what raising taxes do also !)
How about she can take it up with the airlines, then? If they did not charge for luggage, it would not be such a problem. The same amount of weight is going whether the items are checked or carried on.
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