Get Outdoors: Airlines are hooking anglers in the wallet!

We’ve been nickel and dimed by the airlines for years now — baggage fees, drink fees, seat fees and yes, pillow fees.

It seems like the airlines have read the reports on how much money we outdoorsmen spend on our passions annually because they are trying to get their slice of the pie.

I came across a story of JetBlue airlines and their baggage policy misleading anglers who are taking their gear on the trip. There is a section of the policy that is dedicated to fishing equipment.

Sounds good, right? They know that we like to bring our gear along! Let’s see how you would interpret the following snippet taken directly from the JetBlue site:

One item of fishing equipment is considered:

Two rods
One reel
One landing net
One pair of fishing boots
One fishing tackle box

This can easily be interpreted as all five pieces are considered one item. At least that’s the way that I read it, but then again, I failed Spanish in high school. Don’t ask.

Jet Blue’s manager of communication claims that the bullet points (sans bullet points) are considered one item each. How convenient. That would mean that according to the fee schedule on the site, we would be looking at $450, each way, for the above items.

OK. Time to think outside of the box here my outdoor brethren. Just run down to FedEx or the UPS Store and ship that gear! Or better yet, just rent when you get there. If you are a good enough angler, gear that is comparable to yours should work just fine.

We must take a stand and stop paying these ticky-tack fees!