Passenger abandons several bags at ticket counter to avoid fees

jimntx

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Jun 28, 2003
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Dallas, TX
www.usaviation.com
http://finance.yahoo...-215016354.html

Passenger just left several overweight bags at ticket counter at Sea-Tac to avoid paying baggage fees. My question is why was he allowed to continue through security and board his flight for New York?

Article says that TSA met the flight at JFK and questioned the man, but determined he had no criminal intent. Well, that's a relief...several hours after the bags were abandoned.
 
I don't think anyone saw him drop his bags and walk away, and no one figured out whose bags they were until the SEA-JFK flight was already in the air. That said, something doesn't smell right with this story, which might just be another case of shoddy journalism. How can one passenger owe $1400 in over size fees for one flight?!
 
Go back and read the story again. These were something like bags 4-7. They were oversized and overweight. DL stated in the article that there are fees for exceeding number of bags, size, and weight. Each bag limitation exceeded garners a bag fee. So, if it is bag #6, it is overweight, and oversized, there will be 3 fees attached to the one bag. Just the number of bags alone would move the fees up to the $1000 neighborhood. The article said that exceeding two bags costs $125 for the third bag and $200 per bag for any bags over three. So, if there were 7 bags, the fees just for having too many bags would be $925.00.

It takes some time to get through security and get to an airplane at Sea-Tac. And, no one noticed unattended bags for that long? No, that's the part of the story that sounds fishy. It is made clear to everyone working at the airport that they are to be on the lookout for unattended bags.

Granted getting the Thousands Standing Around to do something about unattended bags is another issue. One day at TPA, I noticed several bags sitting in the boarding area for quite some time with no one around them. I notified TSA which was just around the corner from the bags. 20 minutes later I went to a TPA gate agent for US Airways (the bags were at one of their gates) and told him. He and a couple of other agents were on those bags like white on rice. They called the police and were surrounding the bags while the police did a cursory examination prior to moving the them. A woman walked up all indignant that people were messing with her bags. Policeman dressed her down for leaving the bags. She tried to argue with the policeman about her "right" to go get something to eat. Mistake.
 
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Not the first time this has happened and nor will it be the last time. I have seen it many times over the years.