By NY1
New York – With holiday travelers being hit with all kinds of fees for checked baggage, the accuracy of those scales has suddenly become more important to travelers.
The city announced yesterday that some airlines are using faulty scales to weigh luggage.
The Department of Consumer Affairs recently tested baggage scales at John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports. Investigators found 14 percent of the scales at JFK and 4 percent of those at LaGuardia overestimated the weight of bags by at least one pound.
Those scales were taken out of service.
“That kind of improper weight can, particularly now, when every penny counts, really make an impact on a consumer’s wallet,” said DCA Commissioner Jonathan Mintz. “So we took every single scale that was off balance and we shut them all down.”
Consumer Affairs says follow-up inspections found all the wrongly-calibrated scales at LaGuardia had been fixed, but 10 of the scales being used by American Airlines at JFK were still off. The airline was issued violations that carry a $150 fine.
American says it spends tens of thousands of dollars each year having its scales checked for accuracy.
