Can't pay airline fees? Go to jail

Posted 09/11/2011

If you can’t pay airline fees, there can be drastic penalties. You might even have to stay overnight. Or for eight nights, as one poor traveler did in a widely publicized incident.

The victim: Teri Weissinger.

She says she only wanted a “fresh start” when spending her last dollars on an airline ticket to take her from San Francisco to Idaho, where she was planning to start a new life, news accounts say.

“Unfortunately, Weissinger didn't account for the added expense of baggage fees and when she couldn't pay the $60 US Airways required to transport her two checked bags, it set off a chain of events that led to her being trapped in the airport for eight days,” says Smarter Travel.

ABC reports that she spent the time wandering the airport. She admits to being depressed at being trapped, ala the movie “The Terminal,” a 2004 film starring Tom Hanks, where an immigrant finds himself stranded at JFK airport

She was finally sprung from transit-hub purgatory by the "Airport Church of Christ," whose parishioners paid her baggage and rebooking fees and allowed her to continue on her way to Idaho.

“I was relieved because I hadn’t had a shower in eight days,” she told MailOnline. “It was exhausting. I didn’t have much money and I was buying packets of trail mix. It was like going on a camping trip without any camping equipment.”

A US Airways spokesman said:

“We have apologized to Ms Weissinger for her experience, but unfortunately are unable to offer a refund. When you purchase a non-refundable ticket, you accept the terms and conditions. If a passenger cannot travel with their bags, they need to make other arrangements.”

There are many objections to the ever-escalating fees so Bankrate came up with some of “most outrageous.” Here’s a half dozen and how to avoid them.

By David Wilkening

Originally published 8 Nov 2011 at: http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/398/f/5923/s/19eb600a/l/0L0Stravelmole0N0Cstories0C1150A1570Bphp0Dmpnlog0F1/story01.htm