FORT WORTH, Texas — Facing a public-relations nightmare, American Airlines said it would waive fees on excess baggage checked by soldiers traveling on duty, after being excoriated online and in the national media as unpatriotic and hostile to U.S. troops.
Fort Worth-based American had been criticized for weeks in often-incorrect reports on blogs and Internet forums that it had begun slapping fees on Iraq-bound soldiers for checking extra bags of military gear. This week, the story went mainstream, with reports in national media outlets such as CNN.
Terry Trippler of said he’s not surprised the story snowballed. When travelers are frustrated by higher fares, new charges and poor service, he said, “people love to hear this stuff about the big bad airlines and how they’re picking on everybody.”
The furor stemmed from a long-standing contract with the Defense Department, in which American transports traveling soldiers, typically to and from military bases. The airline waives fees on two checked bags and a carry-on case, for a total of 190 pounds of baggage, for soldiers traveling on duty.
The airline charged a $100 fee for a third bag, but soldiers could obtain vouchers in advance from the military to cover the expense. If they didn’t have a voucher prior to the flight, they would have to pay the fee with cash or a credit card but would be reimbursed by the military.
The policy is nearly identical to that of most other airlines — Continental, for example, allows soldiers to check two bags for free, with a $100 fee for the third. Delta and United let soldiers check two bags and charge a $125 fee for a third bag.
But American was singled out for criticism after a report last month in the El Paso Times in which a soldier complained about having to pay a $100 to check an extra duffel bag loaded with military gear.
Some news reports tied the military baggage policy to new fees recently implemented by American and several other carriers. But the military baggage policy was unaffected by those new fees, airline officials said.
Citing the El Paso Times story, the Veterans of Foreign Wars wrote to the Air Transport Association this week asking the industry to waive the third-bag fee, saying it was a burden for soldiers to pay the charge, even though they eventually would be reimbursed.
“After recently hearing of the burden the military reimbursement process put on soldiers traveling to war zones, the choice for us to forgo payment for a third checked bag from the Department of Defense was clear,” said Tom Del Valle, American’s senior vice president of airport services, in a prepared statement. Trippler said American had little choice.
“If they tried to defend themselves, they’d look like a horrible company that hates the troops, even though they have the facts on their side,” he said. “Waiving the fee was the best move they could make, given how this thing has snowballed.”
