An Interesting Twist

Air Jamaica has added an interesting twist to the old checked baggage fee. As reported in Travel Weekly (which is online daily), Air Jamaica will charge $25 to carry a second bag on certain routes. However, they may not put that bag on the passenger's flight. Rather, they will get extra bags to the destination within a seven day window [Did they hire a cable installer to consult on this deal?], and the passengers have to come back to the airport to claim them.

Well, upon first read we about flipped reading this. Yet upon further review it seems the carrier is specifically targeting ethnic nationals traveling home for the summer. We guess many will have the flexibility to live with the deal. We can also sympathize with the carrier that may be faced with too much baggage for the flight. However, it would sure be an ugly trend if this were to get traction in a broader application -- so let's hope nobody matches without the fine print.

Turn Back the Clock Month

Continental comes up big today by bringing back a fan favorite: 500 bonus miles for booking online.

The expiration date suggests that this is a response to OTA's pulling booking fees. However, there's no way to tell just yet if it's an offensive or defensive type of tactic. In other words, has CO seen a drop in online bookings that is offset by higher OTA share? Or is it more like Swine Flu, where fear necessitates some sort of action, even if a direct threat is not yet detected?

Either way, you can be assured that if there's a patron saint for the points-obsessed, travellers are praying that other carriers match.