Flier finds bulky bag costs a bundle at check-in

Question: I recently traveled between Charlotte, N.C., and Washington, D.C., on Delta with a single piece of luggage. As I walked away from the curbside check-in in Charlotte, the check-in guy barked, “You have to remove 8 pounds from this bag right now or go inside and pay $50.” Because of a bad back, I said I would pay the $50 rather than hassle with the bag. In flight, I discovered I had been charged $80. I was outraged and want my money back. How can this type of thing be avoided?

--Beverly Walker, Los Angeles

Answer: Either by packing lighter or getting the price of fuel under control.

Me, I’d rather remove a couple of pairs of shoes than tackle the tangled economic situation of the increasingly troubled airline industry.

Walker, understandably, feels cheated. But getting her money back will be a Sisyphean task; the curbside agent may have misstated the amount, but fees are clearly posted on the airline’s website. That doesn’t mean travelers are aware of them.

They should be. “In this era of $130 per-barrel fuel, I can assure you that we are diligent in collecting every fee as it’s applied,” Anthony Black, senior manager of media relations for Delta, said in an e-mail.

“Because of the rising cost of fuel, we have made some changes to some fees and services. We encourage customers to visit www.delta.com for the latest information.”

Overweight fees are among a host of charges designed to stem carriers’ financial bleeding.

Fliers have slowly grown accustomed to the elimination of in-flight meals. Now they’re finding out that extra poundage, which airlines often turned a blind eye to, will cost a pretty penny. They’re learning that checking a second or third bag comes with a price tag. (Soon they’ll find, at least on domestic American Airlines flights, that checking just one bag will cost them $15.) They’re also having to absorb fuel surcharges now being tacked on to fares.

“What’s next? Charging you to go to the lavatory?” Richard Gritta, professor of finance and transportation at the University of Portland (Ore.) Pamplin School of Business, asks, mostly tongue in cheek.

But just in case he’s not kidding, you might want to limit your fluid intake. The airlines really need the revenue to offset those fuel costs.

“Some of what [airlines] are doing -- not so much the baggage charges -- to raise revenues is mean-spirited and petty,” said George E. Hoffer, professor of transportation economics at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

So, yes, it may seem petty to pay $80 for a bag that weighs 8 pounds too much. It means you just forked out, on a per-pound basis, more than double what the U.S. Department of Agriculture says a pound of choice round steak costs. But your pound of flesh may be just the ticket for the ailing airline industry.

Have a travel dilemma? Write to travel@latimes.com.