In March I flew to Florida from Calgary. We had to pay for EACH piece of checked luggage, only carry-on was included and only 1 piece of carry-on. They expected us to bring just 1 small bag for a 10 day trans-continental flight.

On the same flight no food was included. We can’t carry on drinks anymore and we were dissuaded from bringing food onboard. 6 hours is a long time to go with no food for my 4 year old. The a la carte menu was sold out by the time they reached our seat, passengers at the front of the plane had eaten it all. They offered us a 2nd tiny bag of pretzles instead. yum, yum.

WestJet and others have reduced the allowed weight of checked luggage from 72lbs/bag to 50lbs/bag. Sufficient for most people but if you are checking skis and boots, scuba gear or in my case photography equipment, 50lbs is just not enough. ATA approved shipping cases alone weighs 32lbs leaving room for just 18lbs of equipment so I paid another fee. Stuart, you had it good.

The “perks” on planes have been declining since the 80′s. I don’t mind because I can fly to Ottawa to visit family for much less than I could in 1990′s. Perhaps the new model of paying-as-you-go serves the crowd better than having everyone subsidise heavy users like myself.”