Are airline bag fee's changing gear ownership

[2airishuman]

One of my other hobbies/sports is skiing, and own my own equipment. I've been seeing a trend over the last few years that, due to the airline bag fees, people are slowing renting more and buying gear less - especially skis. There are many parallels between skiing and scuba with performance compared to rentals. Unlike skiing, I'm not seeing an option at destinations for renting higher performance gear.

Have we seen something similar in the scuba world where folks are buying less gear as the bag fee's are making ownership less attractive (especially bulky gear) ?

Skis have to be checked and are subject to both a "checked bag" and an "oversize" charge. Different situation.

I can fit everything for a tropical dive into a carry-on, except fins (too long), line cutter (TSA), and cylinders. I rent cylinders. I check the fins and line cutter.

I could avoid checking a bag if I used smaller fins and rented (or bought and discarded) a line cutter at my destination.

 

[dorsal]

Skis have to be checked and are subject to both a "checked bag" and an "oversize" charge. Different situation.

Not quite correct. Ski's do need to be checked, but they are not considered "oversized". Plus, all airlines consider a pair of ski's and boot bag as one bag so no additional charges. I know many that pack their boots in a carry on bag.

 

[TMHeimer]

That's "upgrade" vs the seat I (thought I) already paid for. But anyway, I agree that $25 or $50 for one checked bag is small change compared to what I spend on the trip, so meh. The part where airlines and attendant agencies are alienating their customers to the point where I'd rather drive for 30 hours than fly for 3 is a different story.

Yeah, and there sure is a lot of alienation nowadays. I used to love flying somewhere. Most days you could set your watch by their flight schedules. It was an adventure. Now it's an ADVENTURE.

 

[admikar]

You people still have it easy. Try all of that in SE Europe. OTH, I guess all of that could be solved if you own a plane?

In my next life I am taking up badminton instead of diving. I dream of checking in with some tight white shorts, a racket and some birdies or whatever those things are called... ;-)

I'm going for chess. Travel, magnetic kind. It is smaller than badminton gear, I can play in flight, and if I play "I vs. I" I always win.

 

[dmaziuk]

Getting from Sarajevo to Split is not quite like getting from Fargo to Fort Lauderdale though.

 

[admikar]

If I'm going to Split, I drive. I am talking ME,Asia.

 

[dmaziuk]

We can't go to ME, Asia either, or at least not with electronic gadgets, un-american passports, and who knows what they'll think of next.

 

[REVAN]

I don't like renting gear for the most part. I'm too picky to use the commercial stuff. Half my gear is custom made. I started freediving which really lightens things up and makes it all a lot easier to travel on the airlines. I sometimes take scuba equipment as well, but it is minimalist and only a small bump in weight over the freediving equipment. If I scuba, I use my freediving equipment and then add a lightweight backplate and a regulator. Scuba only an additional 5 to 7 pounds of gear depending on which options I take, and the reg goes in my carry-on bag, so it doesn't even count toward the weight. I'll rent a tank at the destination.

 

[AZNetEng]

Not in the slightest. Wife are I are "vacation" divers and while we set at least two weeks a year to dive and typically get 15 to 17 dives in per trip, there can be long layoffs between vacations. Its important to me that we have our own rigs and know how they work, how they are put together, and where to find everything when we need to.

 

[BRT]

Fifty? I pay 50 to upgrade to an exit row when flying from Key West to Miami. One of the costs of not having to go fly to paradise.

One leg of our last trip to Cancun there were exit row seats empty behind us. After awhile I moved back there to stretch a little. Boy, did I get told!