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Nov 25, 2008 5:18 pm US/Central
Airport Luggage Scales Inaccuracy May Cost You
(CBS 11 News/AP)
Often airline passengers get bad news once they reach the ticket counter - their luggage is too heavy. At that point you have the option of trying to re-pack your bags and distribute the weight or pay a fee that some say is as heavy as the bag. With your money at stake, just how accurate are airport luggage scales?
The airlines are responsible for the accuracy of their luggage scales and the state is there to keep them honest. No one is saying it's deliberate, but sometimes those scales might not mean what they say.
Fifty pounds is the magic weight – anything above that and you could be charged up to $125.
Just ask Kristin Keller. She was going on a month-long business trip and the last thing she wanted was to be charged for overweight luggage. To make sure she me the magic weight she bought a small digital scale to weigh her bag. "I just kept re-weighing at home to the 50 pound mark… about," she explained. "And I actually made it 49.6 [pounds] when I left my home."
When Keller arrived at the airport it was a different story. Each time she would check her bag, with the same contents, the scales weighed it differently.
"Unfortunately when I got to the international check-in counter in Sydney, Australia, I was shocked that it was flashing over on the scale," she recalled with frustration. "And they said sorry you're going to have to pay the overage fee."
In 2006 at Dallas' Love Field Airport, 40-percent of the scales were off by up to 14 pounds.
Surprised? It gets worse, in South Florida; records show that 1-in-4 scales had weight related test failures. In Wisconsin, five of nine airports had scales that flunked.
United Airlines' scales at Colorado's Denver International Airport had four violations in the past year – which means the devices did not pass state inspection.
Law requires inspectors with the Texas Department of Agriculture to check airport scales once every four years.
If you think a scale may be incorrect, the state urges you to file a complaint by calling 1-800-TELL-TDA or 1-800-835-5832. Based on comments by air travelers an inspector will personally visit the airport and check the scale.
For travelers planning on hitting the slopes, since last ski season airlines have imposed new fees on checking luggage.
Here are fees that some leading U.S. carriers charge for a first, second and third checked bag, plus special rules for ski equipment on domestic flights.
-- American Airlines: $15, $25 and $100 for first, second and third checked bag. Skis are not normally considered oversize but count as one checked bag. Ski boot bag counts as a second bag.
-- Delta Air Lines: $15, $25 and $125. Ski bag and boot bag count as one piece of luggage; no oversize fee but can be charged $90 and up if they exceed 50 pounds.
-- United Airlines: $15, 25 and $125. Ski bag and boot bag count as one piece of luggage; no oversize fee but can be charged $125 if they exceed 50 pounds. Only boots and binding allowed in boot bag.
-- Continental Airlines: $15, $25 and $100. Ski bag and boot bag up to 50 pounds count as one piece of luggage; so does a bag with one or two snowboards. Boot bag can't exceed 62 inches in length, width and height combined.
-- Southwest Airlines: $0, $0 and $25. One pair of skis, poles and boots count as one item; one snowboard and pair of boots also count as one item. Skis longer than 62 inches are charged a $50 oversize fee, according to a Southwest spokeswoman.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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