Feb 6th, 2010
Two Dollars is Two Dollars and Ten Percent is Ten Percent
On my recent trip to Oakland, I (ashamedly, as a Geek) never thought about checking in online until a lady in front of me at Honolulu International Airport said she checked in online. I’m not sure her boarding process–through the maze of agricultural, baggage, and TSA checkpoints–was any quicker, but it made me think about trying it on the return leg of my trip.
The morning of my flight, before I left my hotel, I logged into United.com and used their online check in. It was pretty quick and allowed me to print my boarding pass (although since I had no access to a printer, I didn’t do so), but it also offered me a bit of a savings on a checked bag: $2 off of $20.
Now, $2 is not a huge amount of money by anyone’s standards, but $2 is still $2, and a ten percent discount is still a reasonable discount for quickly doing something online I’d have to do in person anyway. Sure, I wish it was $4, $5, or $10 instead, but $2 in my pocket is better than $2 more to the airlines.
