A couple of weeks ago, when American Airlines instituted their new policy of charging passengers for the first checked bag, I knew other airlines would follow suit. And so they have. United and US Air have announced they, too, will be charging for the first bag checked. To make matters even worse, US Air is also going to be charging now for nonalcoholic beverages (while raising the price of alcoholic beverages), including WATER. (Well, it specifies bottled water, but trust me, you don’t want to drink the tap water on an airplane anyway, unless you want to be drinking e-coli.)

I’m sure after awhile, I’ll become numb to excessive nickel-and-diming like this (and I’m sure that’s what the airlines are counting on), but for now, I’m still peeved. My suggestion: Don’t fly these airlines if you can help it. If you can’t help it, try to stick to one carry-on and one personal bag (like a knapsack you can shove under the seat). If everyone does that, then they’ll be sorry they instituted these changes, because chaos will ensue during the boarding process. As for beverages, since we can’t bring our own beverages from home through security any more, I’m sure they think they’ve got us over a barrel. They don’t. I recommend bringing a couple of empty water bottles with you and as soon as you are past the security check-in, fill the bottles from a water fountain. If you don’t trust the quality of the water at fountains in the airport, I recommend buying a Pure H20 sports bottle, which filters out impurities. Obviously, if you are a cola or coffee lover, they do have you over a barrel, but I recommend drinking water when you fly anyway, since flying dehydrates you and so does caffeine, and your body doesn’t need that double whammy.

Here is a link to an MSNBC article announcing these new measures.