NEW YORK, NY – APRIL 05: A United Airlines airplane flies along it’s landing path towards LaGuardia International Airport as the New York Mets host the Atlanta Braves during their Opening Day Game at Citi Field on April 5, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images)

Traveling can be a pain in the rear end, and air travel can be especially terrible due to all of the additional surcharges that the airlines tack on to your ticket price.

It looks like United Airlines is going to one up everyone else with the most recent set of charges they’re preparing to roll out. One of the last bastions of freedom in air travel may be no more, as United plans to charge travelers to use the overhead bins.

Chuck Schumer, a Democratic senator from New York, believes that this is one of the more restrictive policies in air travel today.

“The overhead bin is one of the last sacred conveniences of air travel and the fact that United Airlines – and potentially others – plan to take that convenience away unless you pay up is really troubling. Already, airlines charge extra for checked luggage, pillows, peanuts and headphones and now you’ll have nowhere to store them. United Airlines should reverse this plan and allow the free use of the overhead bin for all.”

In addition to the loss of the overhead bin, the basic economy class will also not reserve seats together, which could be a potential headache for families trying to travel together.

Instead of comedians joking about airline food, it may soon switch to overhead bins. The move seems short-sighted at best, but they say with the new charges, they could bring in upwards of $1 billion in new revenue by 2020. While the money may be nice, doesn’t the happiness and loyalty of their travelers trump any potential new revenue streams?

When talking about mega corporations, any way to make money seems like a good idea to them. Whether the blowback to this announcement will be enough to stop it remains to be seen.

[ABC 2]

About Sam Blazer

Sam is a self proclaimed chess prodigy. He once placed seventh in the state of Ohio in Chess when he was in kindergarten. He will rarely if ever mention though that only eight people were entered in this tournament. Contact him at sblaze17@gmail.com