Airline offers free luggage (tags!)

OK, so we are not usually excited about luggage tags, but this is a pretty cool promotion from KLM. Click here and order up some luggage tags complete with family (or other) pictures along with the usual name, address and phone deets on the back. Best of all, they are free.

No word on if they actually improve the odds of actually getting your luggage when you arrive. The real question is how long it will be before United offers something similar for the low price of $15. Or $25 if bundled with Economy Plus.

United: All you can check for $249 a year

United has come out with their latest offering in the ever creative world of airline fees: the all-you-can-eat plan for checked baggage. For $249 a year, United will allow you to check up to two bags (normally $20 and $30 for the 1st and 2nd bags) for a whole year. Any hangers-on (up to eight) in the same reservation also benefit from the deal. Think of how much the Eight-is-Enough family would have saved had this been around in their day.

It is a smart move for United, particularly if it builds any loyalty among travelers who may not fly enough to gain Mileage Plus elite status. And maybe those same people, after buying the option, will even pay a little more to fly United because they have some built in savings vs. the other carriers.

And if you are checking a surfboard or flying with gold ingots, you'll still have to pay the usual extra charges for large and heavy bags.

United Actually Reduces a Fee. Yes, You Read that Correctly

Today, United Airlines announced they were dropping last-minute fees for Mileage Plus frequent-flyer award ticket redemption. Yes, this is not a misprint but a case of an airline actually dropping an irksome fee. Currently, non-elite Mileage Plus members are charged $100 to redeem within six days of travel and $75 within seven to twenty days.

These fees have long pained consumers but have been revenue generators for the airlines. After all, it costs an airline the same amount to pull miles and issue a ticket for free travel two hours before a flight leaves vs. two months.

We can think of few other fee roll-backs that once they have been widely accepted by the industry. USAirways stopped charging for sodas but only after they were not matched by any of the major airlines. Similarly, Delta was forced to back down on new international baggage fees after the industry failed to match leaving Delta uncompetitive.

Indeed, prior to Northwest's acquisition by Delta, Northwest did not charge last minute ticketing fees. However, that perk (or should we say Worldperk) went away as soon as the ink was dry on the merger.

Bravo, United.