American Airlines drops fee for curbside check-in service

May 29, 2008 05:14 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

American Airlines today agreed to drop a controversial $2-per-bag fee for curbside check-in service at airports throughout the country and to lift a ban on tips for skycaps at Logan International Airport in the face of public criticism and lawsuits.

In exchange, American skycaps at Logan agreed to drop a federal claim accusing the airline of imposing the tips ban on May 1 in retaliation for their recent victory in a lawsuit. On April 7, a jury in US District Court in Boston awarded a group of nine skycaps more than $325,000 for tips they lost when the airline implemented the curbside baggage fee in September 2005.

The agreement, which lawyers for both sides hashed out in the corridor of the federal courthouse to avoid a court hearing on the tips ban, buoyed several skycaps who claimed their income has plunged both because of the $2 baggage fee and the prohibition on gratuities.

"I feel vindicated," said Don DiFiore, an American skycap at Logan since 1983. "We've gotten rid of the $2-a-bag charge and we're going to have some language on the sign [at the curb] saying tipping is allowed now."

But other skycaps said they believed American granted the concessions, which take effect by June 15, after doing some simple math.

Struggling to make money amid record-high fuel prices, the world's largest airline announced last week that, as of June 15, it will start charging many customers traveling in domestic coach class $15 to check in a piece of luggage, either inside the terminal or at the curb. The first-bag fee follows another recent action by the airline to join the new industry trend of charging anyone who is not among the most loyal or lucrative customers $25 to check a second piece of luggage.

"They're making seven times as much" with the new $15 fee than the airline did with the $2 fee, said Tony Pasuy, another longtime American Airlines skycap. "Why do they need to nickel and dime the passengers when they're making seven times as much?"

He and the other skycaps were concerned that the much higher new fees will still leave them with less in tips than they used to make.

The agreement also does not address whether skycaps at Logan will get to keep raises in their hourly wages that the airline pledged after imposing a ban on tips.