Barks and bites: Trump Hotels, McDonalds, Spirit Airlines

There are good deals and bad deals. These are three that do not make me smile.

Trump Hotels is now offering a special spa package for new mothers, likely designed by new mother Ivanka Trump, who just turned The Donald into a grandfather. Most new mothers I know — including me when my own kids were born — don’t have the time or money for a a day at the spa to get a massage designed to tighten post-partum belly muscles, a facial, and a fruit peel. Most new mothers I know consider “Post Natal Pampering” to be a hot bath and a night’s sleep, neither of which cost $249, plus 20% service charge, plus babysitter, plus maybe an airline ticket to one of the Trump Hotels in New York, Chicago, Las Vegas and Waikiki.

Spirit Airlines now charges passengers a whopping $45 for carry-on luggage that doesn’t fit under the seat. Spirit Airlines is the only U.S. carrier that charges for carry-on. They’ve also added a $5 penalty fee if you check baggage online within 24 hours of your flight, and $10 if you do it by phone. That’s on top of the $28 fee for checked baggage. By way of comparison, other U.S. airlines charge between $15 and $30 for the first checked bag, and JetBlue lets you check one bag for free. Spirit also has lowered the weight for overweight baggage by 20%, from the 50 lbs. most airlines use to just 40 lbs. If your bag weighs between 41 and 50 pounds, there’s a $25 fee on top of the $28 fee, also making low-cost Spirit Airlines the most expensive U. S. airline for checking a standard, size suitcase. Consider and compare baggage fees when you book flights.

McDonald’s has just launched an app to help you find the closest Big Mac and fries. The app also gives you directions and store hours, and nutrition information. I haven’t seen the app, so I can’t tell you if McDonalds is offering all the numbers that you can find from the nutrition monitor group Fast Food Nutrition, where a quick scan tells me that very possibly the worst think you can eat is the ten-piece Chicken Premium Selects Breast Strips, with nearly an entire day’s worth of calories and two days’ worth of sodium sodium — 1270 calories and 3100 mg of sodium. Yipes! The recommended daily maximum of sodium is 2,300 mg a day, according to Livestrong, to avoid high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke and kidney disease. Consumer Reports rates fast food chains in the August 2011 issue, based on a suvey of more than 36,000 readers and subscribers. McDonald’s rates the lowest of all national chains for its burgers, and isn’t even on the list of the top eight fast food chains for chicken. I wonder if that’s in the new McDonald’s app.

This is the first of what I hope will become a regular feature of Barks and Bites.