I just thought this through, and I see a few issues:
(1) For the most part, airlines do seem to allow you to reserve a baggage allowance in advance. Amtrak not doing this on the website is going to trigger problems, especially if someone doesn't have the cash at the moment (based on what I've seen, you have a reasonable number of passengers who might simply not have the resources to pay a "surprise" $40).
(2) There's an obvious issue with respect to, for example, 48/448 and 49/449 (or indeed Shuttle-Regional-LD connections...though the LSL is more obvious): Does someone get dinged at BOS and again at ALB?
(2b) Also with #2, what happens with a change-of-crew?
(3) Even if the policy doesn't dictate that CPAP bags and the like are exempt, I fully expect to see them be deemed exempt. If nothing else, failing to do so would invite an ADA class action suit.
(4) Back to the revenue estimate, Amtrak seems to be expecting that revenue will, on LD trains, roughly fall in line with airline per-passenger revenue. That would kick out up to about $20m on the high end. Lower estimates would probably be accounting for the fact that (1) most pax don't violate this limit and (2) many LD pax are actually short(er)-distance rides not prone to this.
(4b) An interesting question does emerge about this popping up on state-sponsored trains (or, indeed, on 850/851 since that is now not an Amtrak train). This is interesting because of an implied element of such a policy (namely, that you can now carry on additional bags period). I can definitely see this backfiring in some cases.
(5) And of course, as noted above there's the question of "oversize" baggage...
(1) For the most part, airlines do seem to allow you to reserve a baggage allowance in advance. Amtrak not doing this on the website is going to trigger problems, especially if someone doesn't have the cash at the moment (based on what I've seen, you have a reasonable number of passengers who might simply not have the resources to pay a "surprise" $40).
(2) There's an obvious issue with respect to, for example, 48/448 and 49/449 (or indeed Shuttle-Regional-LD connections...though the LSL is more obvious): Does someone get dinged at BOS and again at ALB?
(2b) Also with #2, what happens with a change-of-crew?
(3) Even if the policy doesn't dictate that CPAP bags and the like are exempt, I fully expect to see them be deemed exempt. If nothing else, failing to do so would invite an ADA class action suit.
(4) Back to the revenue estimate, Amtrak seems to be expecting that revenue will, on LD trains, roughly fall in line with airline per-passenger revenue. That would kick out up to about $20m on the high end. Lower estimates would probably be accounting for the fact that (1) most pax don't violate this limit and (2) many LD pax are actually short(er)-distance rides not prone to this.
(4b) An interesting question does emerge about this popping up on state-sponsored trains (or, indeed, on 850/851 since that is now not an Amtrak train). This is interesting because of an implied element of such a policy (namely, that you can now carry on additional bags period). I can definitely see this backfiring in some cases.
(5) And of course, as noted above there's the question of "oversize" baggage...
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