Well, I hate to say that it is now “official”, but American Airlines really has entered into the territory of the low cost carrier – by charging for their blankets.

The new charge goes into effect on May 1st, and is just another fee facing passengers.

According to the airline, they are introducing the fee based on “customer surveys”. Unless that survey asked passengers for ways they’d like to receive less service for the same amount of money, I’m not sure where they got the kind of input that would force them to remove free blankets.

Of course, removing free blankets wouldn’t be so bad, if the airlines managed to keep the temperature on their planes at a comfortable level – alas – even though you are sitting inside a computer operated fly-by-wire jet plane, technology still has not evolved enough to keep the cabin comfy.

The new charge will apply to flights two hours and longer from the US to Canada, Mexico, Hawaii, the Caribbean and Central America. Shorter flights don’t get blankets, and long haul flights are apparently safe (for the time being). I guess the time has come for us all to bring our own Snuggie?

As always, we love to hear from our readers, so what do you think?

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