Guess the airline: Passenger charged $100 for bag being one pound over the weight limit

A recent Reddit thread read: “I was charged $100 for an extra 1 pound and was forced to pay it.” Before I even read the thread, I had a feeling I knew who the culprit was and I was right. RELATED: Flying Spirit, Frontier or Allegiant Airlines? This is the Bag You Need So You Don’t Get Charged Extra

Reddit user @sasidharevuru posted the following in the Frontier Airlines thread: “I had a horrible experience with Frontier airlines at PHX airport this July 4th weekend. There is a huge line for checking in the bags. Of the available 4 counters there are 2 reserved for folks who are willing to checkin with the help of Frontier staff, the rest of the 2 counters are open for folks who already checked in and basically wont contribute any extra money to the airlines. After waiting in the line for nearly 50 min i was called in to checkin the bag which i prepaid $75 for 40lb bag(This is already a bizarre price). My bag read 41lb on the scale. I was stunned when the representative asked to pay 100$ for an extra pound. I offered to remove the extra pound and then came the biggest twist, the airline representative blackmailed me that I have to go back to the start of the queue and come back again if I plan to remove the extra pound and it is Frontiers policy. This is the bizarre policy that I ever heard and it is very clear that they are taking advantage of the situation into milking more money from the customers here. I would definitely miss my fight if I go back and join the queue. My wife and my toddler already at the TSA security and it is very clear that they are taking advantage of the situation. Is there something that I can about this ?

I was charged 100$ for an extra 1 pound and was forced to pay it.
byu/sasidharevuru infrontierairlines

Now, this is a new low for Frontier Airlines who is known for playing tricks with their customers. I wrote this popular post in December: Don’t Fly Frontier Airlines Unless You Know This. You really should watch the video embedded in the story; it’s a customer filming a gate agent who said her carry-on bag didn’t fit in the sizer and forcing her to pay $99 at the gate. It turns out this happens a lot because the gate agents get a $10 bounty.

Frontier’s and Spirit Airlines’ tricks are so lame that United Airlines CEO, Scott Kirby, recently told the podcast, The Air Show, “I think they’re going out of business. It’s a fundamentally flawed business model. The customers hate it, the customers have voted, and they’re going out of business.”

Major airlines like American, Delta, United and JetBlue began offering fares (Basic Economy) similar to ultra-low cost carriers (ULCC) so they could take some of their customers away. I personally avoid ULCC’s and Basic Economy fares because I don’t like the restrictions and the lack of frequent flier benefits I would otherwise get from flying a legacy carrier on a regular economy fare.

I also prefer flying the majors because their gate agents are a tad more lenient since they don’t make a commission, forcing passengers to pay up. My wife and I almost had something similar happen to us a few weeks ago at the JetBlue counter in the Nantucket Airport (ACK).

We were flying from ACK to New York’s LGA airport (photo above). First of all, I was bummed that American (AA) and JetBlue had ended their partnership because my AA elite frequent flier status did nothing. I learned the hard way that JetBlue charges $40 per bag (up to 50 pounds) if it’s purchased in advance or $50 at the airport. And if your bag is over 50 pounds, it’s $150. Gulp.

I avoided the extra $100 charge a few ways:

1. I used my tiny portable (the size of small fat cigar) handheld digital scale before leaving for the airport, which helped tremendously because my wife had two checked bags and one of them was 58 pounds and the other 41 pounds. After weighing them, we realized we needed to redistribute the weight, which we did at home by repacking.

2. When we got to the counter, one of our bags was still overweight … by one pound. The gate agent was nice and obviously not earning a commission. She said, “I won’t charge you $100 for the extra pound.” However, if she hadn’t let us slide, I would have opened up the bags right there at the counter and grabbed one of the small packing cubes my wife packs with and popped it in my carry-on. I’ve done it before, as you can see from the photo above.

3. I also carry a compact foldable bag the size of a tennis ball in my carry-on so if something like this happens, I can easily use that bag. I also use it to go to the grocery store while on the road so I can avoid the cheap paper bags that always rip and cost up to $0.30 cents per bag.

Another thing I should mention is that the airport scales can be wrong. They’re not regulated, as travel expert Peter Greenberg talks about in the video embedded above. He says: “The scales at the airport check-in counters are not inspected very often and even worse, there’s no Court of Appeals.”

But don’t think agents at the major carriers don’t have some tricks of their own up their sleeves. A United Airlines employee at Newark Liberty International Airport inside Terminal C tried to get a passenger whose bag he knew was under the weight limit but the agent put his foot on the scale to make it look like it weighed more to try and get a tip out of him. Here’s that crazy story.

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