Riddle me this
 

If a 3.18kg cat is worth $63.60, then how much is a rock weighing 10kg worth?

Get my drift? If you pack efficiently taking only what you need and the airline loses your bags, just exactly how much compensation will you receive? Depends on what it weighs, right?

So why not make your luggage weigh the maximum allowable? So what if your suitcase only weighs 10kg? Add rocks to bring it up to the maximum 35kg (or whatever is allowed by the airline in question) and you've earned yourself an extra USD$500 if the bags are lost.

In fact, I see a business opportunity -- kiosks in the airport selling dead weight, say for $2 a kilo. I mean just how much can a 4½ pound rock cost? A penny? A dime? Does it matter? Think of it as a new kind of "baggage insurance."

Better still would be a rock rental facility. That way you could preclude people buying the rocks one time and using them over and over again. You still charge them $2/kg, but it's a rental charge for a single trip. At the end of the trip, they'd have to return the rocks, or pay the pre-authorized "purchase option price" of, say, $20/kg.

And I know where there's an empty kiosk at YVR! All I need now is an accurate scale, a list of airline baggage restrictions, and a pile of rocks.

Now the rental idea is a good one. Recycle the material and be a responsible citizen.

Would I get AP miles for renting the rocks? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

You could run the rock rental business like the DVD rental business in the states. Pick it up at YVR, drop it off at YYZ. Brilliant I say, da*n brilliant. (can I have the YYZ franchise?)

Gold. Absolute gold.

...and having the plane heavier would reduce the chance of a last minute J seat would be sold, thus increasing the UG chance http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

And as Elite/Super Elite you can bring an extra 2 pieces of luggage full of rocks http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

I can just picture somebody showing up with a couple of cinder blocks. .. . pitty the check in agent if they ask why . .. . http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Actually I had lost luggage with AA a few years ago on my way to South America, the result was after a few weeks of trying to find it was that they paid me the $9.00 per KG or what ever it was then to the total allowance of the bag I was aloud in Y, again I think this was 20kg.

I don't think I had 20kgs, but that’s was it...very unfair if you have expensive stuff, this is part of the Warsaw convention, on paper tickets it states the coverage, but not on an E ticket.!...umm....l

...and it demonstrates the importance of insurance for lost luggage.

I have an even better idea, run it like Netflix.com! For a monthly subscription fee, every month you get three bags of rocks, which you can use as much as you want, and keep as long as you want. Then when you're bored with them, you just mail them in for three new blocks! Now that's a business plan!

andrew

I'm thinking more along the lines of those "take a penny / leave a penny" trays you find near the cash register at some stores.

FewMiles..

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You mean a "take a rock / leave a rock" tray?

"Rent-A-Rock Inc." But will there be a one-way repositioning charge to return the rock to its original base?

bj-21.

I've got an even better idea. If you are allowed to check two bags but you only have one -- just check the rock or cinder block without a suitcase. If asked just claim you are a geologist and that it's one of your samples.

I wonder if you could claim damage if they drop and break it?

[This message has been edited by xyzzy (edited 12-04-2002).]

Ken:

Have you been travelling in the US lately?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

full article at http://www.usatoday.com/travel/vacat...01-24-lost.htm