How People Give Up Rights When Using an Airline

Many people modern day use airlines as a form of transportation. To be able to use this service passengers must have their bags and personal belongings checked by the airline. Airlines do this for the safety of their passengers and to ensure that no catastrophe happens during flight. But when this is done are passengers giving up their rights? Is it right for someone to go through your personal belongings? Or is this procedure only for security reasons? What rights do airplane passengers give up by allowing themselves to be checked before boarding? When Someone travels with an airline they must have their baggage checked before boarding the plane. Some people feel that this invades their privacy and that it is not necessary. Why should the airport check my personal belongings? Why cant they just pull up your criminal record or just check your pockets instead of checking everything? Some alternative plans is to take your bags and keep them in a secured part of the plane so there is no risk. And some airlines may even make you pay additional fees for these baggage checks meanwhile they are for your safety. Some airlines like Allegiant charge you $35 for your first bag. (â€Å"Airline baggage fees† 2) And how many people only bring one bag to the airport? Your second bag is $35 , and then any additional bags are â€Å"Subject to additional fees†. And all of this is paid for on top of your flight. Now shouldn’t it be an option to pay for safety? Does the airline even care about your safety or are they just trying to make more money? Collectively, airlines made approximately $3. 4 billion in baggage fees last year (â€Å"Airlines bagging big money† 1). Some people believe that airline just do this to make more revenue. Even though air ports are forced to check your baggage by the FAA (â€Å"Air Carrier Operations Bulletin† No. 1-94-10) people believe that the airline should not charge you extra and that the whole concept of being charged for baggage is stupid. Instead of being charged separately for baggage airlines should just include the price for baggage in the airline ticket. (â€Å"Clayton† 1). Other people seem to think that baggage fees are just a hidden fee that airlines use to try to get more money (â€Å"Most Obnoxious Hidden Airline Fees† 5). These people agree with the theory that one flat rate baggage fee should be included in the airline ticket. And as the Lehigh Valley Newspaper, The Morning Call says, â€Å"The recent measure of baggage checking at airports for bombs is a blatant disregard of a person’s privacy. Why should we stand for this, when our founding fathers fought to prevent things like this from happening? †. The person who wrote this article seems to be disregarding the fact that if it were not for this law of checking baggage that every time someone were to board an airplane they would be in danger. Imagine if every time someone boarded an airplane that that person was in danger. Modern day children go on airplanes for vacations with their families. Even if our founding fathers did try to prevent this, if this procedure was not done thousands of people every day would be in danger every day in the united states. Now even if this procedure is for the people’s safety, should the people be charged so the airlines can follow the law? Other articles regarding this subject state that when someone travels through an airline they loose their second amendment right. When people use an airline service their rights are not taken away but restricted, and for the safety of themselves and others. The second amendment, protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms (weapons). Many people argue that when boarding a plane that weapons such as knives and guns are not allowed to be brought on a plane during flight. Those people are wrong. It is one hundred percent legal to bring a gun or knife on board of a plane, with some rules of coarse. As stated in the article, â€Å"Traveling with Special Items on Airlines† from TravelSence you can bring a gun on flight as long as, 1. The gun is in part of your checked baggage. 2. the firearm must be unloaded and in a secure hard side container. 3. The owner of the firearm must be at the screening or the item and provide the combination or key to open the secure container containing the firearm. 4. ant and all ammunition must be placed in fiber or packaging specifically designed to hold ammunition. And 5. The ammunition must be in the same container as the unloaded firearm. As long as when traveling with a firearm you follow all of these procedures you can legally bring a gun with you while traveling with an airline. Once again these rules might restrict your rights as an American citizen but they do NOT take away your rights as an American citizen. And there is also rules with sharp objects such as knives. The only rule that there is on these items is,1. It can not be in carry on luggage and it must be securely wrapped to prevent injury. So once again it is one hundred percent legal to bring a weapon with you while flying with an airline service. Also if someone fells that having their baggage checked is taking away their rights that is also not true. The FAA (a government-run organization) enforces these rules and regulations for the airline passengers safety and for no other reason except for the passenger’s safety. Also by having these rules enforced by the government they can not possibly eliminate your rights as an American citizen (although they might restrict them temporarily). And concerning the rule for having baggage checked, it is up to the airlines to charge you for your bags. Some airlines like Jetblue offer your first bag of luggage for free and every extra bag has additional fees. So depending on which airline service the customer uses the cost for baggage check differ so when people complain about baggage fees they should look in to different airlines and see if any airlines offer cheaper fees or no fees at all (â€Å"Airline baggage fees† 5). The theory that baggage fees (if there are any) should be included in the ticket for flight depends on personal preference and one of the reasons why airlines do not charge the baggage fees in the ticket price is to try to hide additional fees from their customers (â€Å"Most Obnoxious Hidden Airline Fees† 5). And even though that may not seem right it is not taking away any rights that a person might have under American citizenship So, even though when someone travels with an airline service it might seem that it takes away their rights given to them in the declaration of independence, it really does not. The most traveling with an airline service does to your rights is restrict them. And the one and only reason that this is done is for the passenger’s/customer’s safety. The question here is, what rights do airplane passengers give up by allowing themselves to be checked before boarding? And the answer to this question would be, airplane passengers do not give up the rights given to them by being an American citizen. But if someone considers their invasion of personal privacy a right than they could possibly be giving up their rights (even though airlines do not save keep any information about your personal information on file).