wrxpilot
New Member
Well, if you fly enough, you won't have to pay it. This is so that people who fly once a quarter will go to United. They figure they've paid their $250, so they won't go somewhere else that's $10 cheaper since they'll have to pay to check their bags.
Flying once a quarter probably isn't going to get you enough miles to get to premier status. You've got to fly 25K miles to get there, and if you fly one transcon a quarter, you'll be around 5,000 miles short.
This probably makes premier and above fliers feel a little better, too. They can put a dollar value on one of the benefits they get from United.
If you fly once per quarter, why the heck would you pay $250 for checked bags? It might be worth it for some large families, but then they are locked into using United. If they shop around, they will EASILY save more money if buying multiple tickets.
This probably works in a couple of small circumstances, but for the vast majority of travelers I just don't see where the savings is. For multiple trips in a year, it is most likely just going to be one person. The checked bag fee is $25/person. That would be 10 flights, most of which probably involve 2 segments. That almost meets the requirements right there.