Talk about skipping out on the bill.

A passenger on Delta Airlines early Tuesday left four of his seven bags at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, apparently because he didn’t want to pay more than $1,000 in baggage fees.

NBC News reported Tuesday that the passenger, who was en route to New York’s JFK Airport, abandoned four bags to avoid $1,400 in fees. Ross Feinstein, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration, said the TSA was notified of the unattended luggage at around 1 a.m. local Seattle time near the check-in area for Delta Airlines. As a precaution, law enforcement responded to clear the bags.

One of the bags was determined to be suspicious. “The Bomb Disposal Unit responded and deployed a robot to investigate the luggage,” said Christina Faine, spokeswoman for the airport, in an email. “After X-raying the bag, the bomb techs cleared the contents and determined that there was no threat.”

The TSA’s Feinstein said the passenger was identified and law enforcement officials with the Port Authority of New York New Jersey, which operates JFK Airport, met the flight and interviewed him when he arrived. Officials determined there was no criminal intent by the passenger.

A Delta spokesman said unattended bags are not a common issue for the airline.

Anyone who’s flown in the past few years knows how airlines nickel-and-dime passengers on food, drinks, baggage, seat selection, early boarding and wi-fi. And it’s getting worse. A report published in May by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics found that U.S. airlines collected nearly $3.5 billion in baggage fees from passengers in 2012, up from $3.48 billion in 2011. And Delta Air Lines (DAL) has sat at the top of the list every year since 2009, according to the bureau. In the first quarter of 2013, Delta brought in $191 million in baggage fees – the highest amount – followed by United, US Airways and American Airlines.

Baggage fees on Delta are currently $25 for the first checked bag, $35 for the second checked bag (both on domestic flights). Delta allows up to 10 bags to be checked per passenger on flights, but you’ll have to pay. Your third checked bag costs $125 and bags 4-10 are $200 each.

“We’re assuming this is extremely heavy luggage,” said Randy Petersen, founder of Flyertalk, in an email. “In fact, looking at Delta’s normal overweight luggage fees, we can assume that one or more of these bags weighed more than 100 pounds and at some point reached the weight of a normal passenger.” Petersen said it would have cost the passenger more than $2,000 to move those same bags with just a day delay via FedEx.

Neither the TSA nor Delta would reveal the passenger’s identity but it’s safe to say he wasn’t traveling light and he incurred the airline’s overweight bag fees. What’s more, Delta charges separate fees for each limitation a passenger exceeds: size, weight and quantity. Delta’s website says: “For example, if an extra piece of baggage exceeds the weight and size limits, it will be subject to three fees: one for the extra bag, one for exceeding the weight limit and one for going over the size restriction. Fees are charged for each additional bag, each way.”

“Granted, $1,400 is a whole lot of fees,” Petersen said. “But truly if any passenger is relying on an airline to carry that many ‘overweight’ bags, surely there is some responsibility to know estimated weight and inquire with the airline before.”

(PIX11) – A disabled man is suing Delta Airlines after he claims he was forced to crawl across the tarmac multiple times without assistance.

Baraka Kanaan is unable to walk after a 2000 car crash.

He says last July, Delta informed him appropriate accommodations would be made, but he says when the plane touched down, he got none.

So he had to crawl to his wheelchair.

Not only that — it happened on his return flight as well.

A partially paralyzed man is suing Delta Airlines, claiming he was forced to crawl on and off his flights and across the tarmac because he wasn’t provided with the equipment he needed to board and exit the plane, according to a complaint.

D. Baraka Kanaan, 40, of Haiku, Hawaii, filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Hawaii against Delta Airlines and 20 of the carrier’s employees and agents. The suit, filed on July 23, seeks damages after he endured “intense physical and extreme emotional suffering” from the ordeal.

In the suit, Kanaan said the airline subjected him to “appallingly outrageous treatment” both on his flight to Nantucket, Mass., on July 27, 2012 and on his flight back to Maui, Hawaii, two days later.

READ MORE: Amputee Vet ‘Humiliated’ on Delta Flight

Kanaan, who suffered partial paralysis of his legs after a car accident in 2000, called Delta weeks before his flight to Nantucket, Mass., to let them know he needed an aisle chair and a lift to get off the plane and into his wheelchair, the complaint said. The airline told him he’d be accommodated upon his arrival.

But when his flight landed at Nantucket Airport, he was told by a flight attendant that the airline didn’t have the equipment he needed and that the crew couldn’t get him off the plane, according to the complaint.

As a result, Kanaan was “forced to crawl down the aisle of the airplane, down the stairs of the aircraft and across the tarmac to his wheelchair without any assistance.”

But even though Kanaan reported the problem to Delta and was assured he’d be given what he needed on his trip home, the same thing happened to Kanaan on his flight to Hawaii.

Kanaan was told that neither an aisle chair nor a lift was available to help him on the plane. Once again, he was forced to “crawl across the tarmac, up the stairs of the aircraft, down the aisle and hoist himself into his seat,” the complaint said.

The only thing the airline offered him was “a piece of cardboard to put down so his clothes wouldn’t get dirty,” according to the suit.

Under the Air Carrier Access Act, the airline is required to provide passengers “with a lift, aisle chair and other equipment as needed or requested,” the suit said.

While the Delta disability desk offered to compensate Kanaan with 25,000 miles and $100 voucher, the lawsuit also states, the offer was not enough to quell his fears that he’d be forced to crawl again if he flew with the airline.

Kanaan’s attorney, Richard Holcomb, told ABC News that while his client was upset that the issue could not be resolved, he’s glad that his story is out as the airline has “done other egregious things to disabled people” in the past.

Kanaan’s complaint states, “Just a year before, Delta received no less than 5,000 complaints against it and was ordered to pay record breaking fines for its persistent ‘egregious’ mistreatment of disabled passengers.”

A spokesman for Delta Airlines declined to comment on the pending lawsuit.

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Baraka Kanaan was left without the use of his legs following a car accident in 2000.

Delta Airlines is being sued after a disabled man claimed he was forced to crawl across the tarmac multiple times after the carrier refused to help him on and off the plane.

Baraka Kanaan, a former philosophy professor who now heads a not-for-profit, was scheduled to fly from his home in Hawaii to Nantucket Island in Massachusetts last July to attend a conference.

Mr Kanaan was left unable to walk after car crash in 2000 but claimed he contacted the airline weeks in advance to tell them of his disability.

According to the Huffington Post, Mr Kanaan said he was assured by Delta staff “that he would be received and given reasonable accommodation for his disability.”

Yet when his flight touched down in Massachusetts there was no equipment to help him off the airplane and to his wheelchair. When he asked what could be done, a flight attendant allegedly told him, “I don’t know, but we can’t get you off the plane.”

According to a law suit filed by Mr Kanaan this month, he said he was left with no option but to crawl in his best suit “hand over hand through the main cabin and down a narrow flight of stairs and across the tarmac to his wheelchair”.

On his return flight he was forced to go through the same humiliating experience since the airline still had made no provision for his disability. This time the airline offered to place cardboard beneath him “so that his clothes wouldn’t get dirty”, his suit alleges.

After complaining to the airline Mr Kanaan said he was offered a $100 voucher and an offer of 25,000 SkyMiles.

This story originally appeared at news.com.au.

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A former college professor who cannot walk has sued Delta Airlines in federal court, claiming that crew members on two flights told him the only way he could get off the plane was to crawl down the aisle, down the steps and across the tarmac.

D. Baraka Kanaan, who lives in Hawaii, filed the suit July 23 in U.S. District Court in Honolulu, against the airlines and 20 unnamed individuals.

Kanaan, who suffers from partial paralysis of his legs stemming from a car accident, said the airline’s “outrageous conduct” occurred on two flights he took a year ago.

On July 26, 2012, Kanaan, who is now head of the Lovevolution Foundation, was scheduled to take a series of Delta flights from Maui to Nantucket, Mass., for a conference.

Several weeks before the flight, Kanaan spoke to a Delta customer service representative about needing a lift to get on the plane and an aisle chair to get to his seat, the suit states. The representative assured him that he would be accommodated, according to the complaint.

After his scheduled flight was canceled because of weather, he was booked on another flight the next day. When he arrived in Nantucket, a flight attendent told him the airline did not have an aisle chair or a lift to get him off the plane to retrieve his wheelchair.

According to the complaint, the Airline Carrier Access Act and other federal regulations require airlines to have such equipment for disabled passengers.

When Kanaan asked about his options, the flight attendant said, “I don’t know, but we can’t get you off the plane,” the suit states.

Although a lift was visible at an adjacent gate, Kanaan was forced to crawl out of the plane and across the tarmac without any assistance from the crew and with many people watching, according to the lawsuit.

Kanaan called the airlines to complain and to report that he would need the same equipment for his return trip.

Despite assurances it would be there, the complaint states that when boarding began the needed aisle chair and lift were unavailable but a flight attendant told him they could put down a piece of cardboard so his clothes wouldn’t get dirty.

Upon his return home, a Delta representative offered him 25,000 “sky miles” as compensation, which he refused, the suit states.

Kanaan is seeking compensatory and punitive damages to be determined at trial, according to the complaint.

On Friday, Delta had not filed its response, according to online records.

Roanoke, VA – Delta Airlines has warned Roanoke Regional Airport officials that their one daily non-stop to New York City may be dropped, unless more people start using it.

On average, about 18 people use the 50 seat plane a day.

Delta officials want to see that number improve to at least 25.

The airline took over the route when U.S. Air gave it up last year.

The airport has until October to convince airline officials the flight is sustainable.

“But I will say that the fact that they even told us that the route needed to improve… and gave us some time, that actually means they want it to get better,” said Roanoke Regional Airport Spokesperson Sherry Wallace.

Airport officials think much of the problem is lack of local awareness of the flight. They point out that the flight out of Charlottesville is so successful a second flight was recently added.

July 24, 2013 7:47 AM

Ford, Apple, Boeing and Delta Airlines all report higher earnings and Republican senator Darryl Issa wants the US Postal service to phase out door to door mail service to save money

This Tuesday in the Delta Airlines Sky Lounge at JFK International in New York there was a guy from London who was two days off his Louisville bound travel schedule because Delta had canceled flights.  A young woman in her twenties, standing in line with me to find out why my flight was now three hours late to Boston, said I shouldn’t feel bad: her flight was supposed to leave a day ago to Raleigh.

Chalk it up to bad weather or — as George Carlin once said, “broken planes” – still, our airports are some of the best in the world for getting their passengers out on time.

According to travel industry monitor, FlightStats, Chinese airports are the worst.

The FlightStats figures showed that in June 2013, out of a worldwide analysis, Beijing and Shanghai airports came in last for on-time arrivals and departures. They had by far the worst record for on-time flights – 18.3% and 28.7% respectively leaving those busy airports on schedule.

FlightStats came out with their report two weeks ago, but being stuck in JFK for three hours, and listening to people stuck because of delayed Delta flights , had me thinking twice about the reliability of U.S. airports.  Truth is, they are not as bad as Americans tend to believe. And despite all the billions of dollars spent on new and modern airports in China, the air traffic controllers cannot get their planes in the air on time.

Chinese airline performance makes Delta look like the best airline in the world. China United Airlines had just 27% of its flights arriving on time. Large national carriers like Air China and China Southern also reported massive delays along those same lines. Mainland experts attribute the problem to excessive military control of the airspace and poor urban planning, the South China Morning Post reported on July 12.

“Nearly 80% of China’s airspace has been reserved for military use. In other countries, such as the U.S., the situation is exactly the opposite,” a senior executive of Hainan Airlines Hainan Airlines said.

Jan. 4, 2013, fog delay at China’s Kunming Changshui International Airport.

At least 42% of flights from Beijing get delayed by 45 minutes or more while Shanghai International had just 24% of its flights departing on time last month, compared with a 38.9% on-time departure rate six months ago.

Although Beijing has tried to solve the delay problem for years, little has been achieved, South China Morning Post reported. Delays often trigger violent protests at airports.  One made the rounds on YouTube, of course, when security cams caught one man slamming the living daylights out of a poor check in receptionists computer terminals. In recent months, there have been frequent reports of angry passengers smashing airline counters and attacking ground staff in an outbursts of anger. Many have given up flying and have moved to high-speed rail where possible.

The top 10 performing major international airlines and their on-time percentages included in descending order:

Iberia Airlines: 85.70%
Korean Air Lines: 86.80%
EasyJet: 87.20%
KLM: 89.70%
Tyrolean Airways: 90.27%
Finnair: 90.34%
Japan Airlines: 91.29%
ANA: 91.42%
Gulf Air: 92.06%
South African: 93.33%

Top performing North American airports included Honolulu (86.29%), Vancouver (86.18%) and Salt Lake City (85.55%). Top performing large European airports were in Amsterdam (83.52%), Munich (83.35%) and Vienna (82.15%).

Best Airports In The World