Delta Has an Idea to Generate Revenue: More Bag Charges!

Bag charges. They're the worst. But here's some even more annoying news: they're going up!

Yes, that's right. Delta has decided that people traveling a really long way shouldn't be able to pack more than one bag for anything other than highway robbery, as they've raised their "second bag price" on international flights to a whopping $50.

Effective today, for international travel beginning July 1, Delta will charge customers a $50 fee to check a second bag, which the company expects to generate more than $100 million annually.

Well, goodie for Delta, who will make a ton of money. The downside: this is, um, not awesome news for consumers. The airline may have posted huge losses recently, but that's still not an excuse to seek awkwardly aggressive methods of charging consumers in an attempt to recoup some money. They're better off doing something counter intuitive like giving out free peanuts. I'd buy more airplane tickets.

Nerd Wants $1,000,000 From Airlines for Lost XBox

Jesse Maiman is on a mission. From God. Okay, not really. But he is on a mission to sue US Airways for $1 million.

Why? Because he thinks that some US Airways employee hijacked his Xbox out of his luggage when he was flying from New Haven, Connecticut (he's a student at Yale) to Cincinnati (presumably heading home.) And he filed suit against them Monday.

The suit seeks to have the airline pay him $1,700 for the loss of the gaming system and for "non-economic distress" of at least $25,000, but "in the maximum amount allowable by law or, in the alternative, in the sum of $1,000,000."

Let's be clear about a couple of things here. First, there is no way in hell that an XBox is worth one million dollars. Ever. Even if said XBox has "a specialized hard drive and components he said cost more than $1,000." 

Secondly, Mr. Maiman packed the XBox in his checked baggage. Anyone who has ever been near an airplane or a baggage conveyor belt knows that luggage handlers are not the most gentle people in the world. 

Thirdly, as Valerie Wunder, spokesperson for U.S. Airways put it, there are loss limits for each checked bag, currently set at $3,300. (And even that number is too high for an XBox.)

And finally, why on Earth was this kid taking his XBox home with him? Because it was Christmas break? And he was really hoping to get World of Warcraft: Harry Potter Edition? I understand that downtime at home is boring, but there's a reason that things like "the outdoors" and "friends" exist -- so 21 year old college students don't spend their entire Christmas break trying to shatter their personal record for ziltgans zapped in one 16 hour gaming span.

Airlines Celebrate Two Years of Not Accidentally Killing Anyone

I'm not one to jinx a solid streak, but since CNN went ahead and mentioned it first, I'll just follow up by saying (and hand-pounding/golf-clapping anyone that wants the visual kudos as well) "WELL DONE" to all of the United States airlines for their hard work over the past two years.

It's a tough job not to kill anyone.

A single year without fatalities has occurred only four times since 1958, an analysis by the Air Transport Association found.

Thus, the two-year streak in 2007 and 2008 is all the more remarkable, considering that airlines ferried more than a billion passengers.

"That stellar record isn't something that came about by accident," David Castelveter, spokesman for the ATA industry group, told CNN.

Seriously. I'm not trying to make any mockery of death or airline issues (we're not that far from 2001, I suppose) but what does it say about your industry when you celebrate a two year run of "not accidentally killing anyone"? I'll tell you what it says: If you mess up and let anyone else die, you better repeal that $15/bag check-in charge. That's what it says.