The Long Descent: The $300 Surfboard Fee
Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 08.25.08 | 10:39 AM ET
Surfers are being gouged by many airlines when they travel with their boards, and, rightfully, they’re pissed. “The charges have gotten so gnarly that some professional surfers are calling for a boycott of airlines that have high fees and are putting out their own personal lists of surfer-friendly carriers that wave riders should patronize,” writes Peter Pae in the Los Angeles Times. Among the airlines surfers are calling out: Delta, Continental and United. Each charges a minimum of $115 for domestic flights, and up to $300 for international trips.
It’s ridiculous. As the Times story points out, surfboards aren’t heavy so airlines can’t justify this as a weigh issue. Instead they say boards “require special care and extra handling.”
Related on World Hum:
* The Long Descent: The $7 JetBlue Pillow, Blanket
* Baggage: Check It or Ship It?
Photo by **spaceMonkey**, via Flickr (Creative Commons)
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Michael Yessis is the cofounder and coeditor-in-chief of World Hum.
Jake DeVries 08.25.08 | 7:16 PM ET
As a former baggage handler I can say that surfboards are a pain in the arse but not enough to justify a 300 dollar fee!
Usually we shove the surfboards in the tail of the plane where we don’t put anything else but the occasional casket anyway.
Oh and if the airline is charging extra for “special care and handling” it would be nice if the people doing the “special care and handling” would get to see that money…...
Michael Yessis 08.25.08 | 7:26 PM ET
Thanks for the inside story, Jake. Yeah, I can’t see how they justify those prices, even if the boards are a pain and they don’t fit on the baggage carousel.
Tim 09.07.08 | 11:45 PM ET
“require special care and extra handling.”—That’s such crap. I’ve seen how they handle surfboards, they throw them around like any other piece of luggage.