CAN you visualise carrying a rack of elk antlers on board an airplane? How about being charged $100 when your suitcase weighs only one pound over the allowed 50 pounds?Both made attention-getting headlines in Frontier and United Airlines announcements recently and they're probably not the last. If you thought going through security shoeless and sorting out appropriate sized liquids was a challenge, this summer promises to be uniquely interesting for those flying off into the wild blue yonder.

When American Airlines recently announced a charge of $15 for your first suitcase and $25 for a second, it triggered an avalanche of similar restrictions that has so rattled some passengers, it's no surprise they're finding it hard to cope.

What's next they wondered . . . coin operated W.C. doors?

Other carriers are unfurling their own new regulations and travellers had better pay attention if they don't want to be hit with excessive charges.

When Frontier Airlines informed the flying public they would institute a $100 charge to transport elk antlers, most travellers raised their eyebrows. How ludicrous! Who on earth would ever consider doing that?

Two guesses. You know who. On a very exciting several day Snake River float trip in Jackson Hole, Wyoming one autumn, we discovered a rack of impressive antlers discarded by an elk during molting season.

We'd left our overnight campsite and hiked up along a steep trail into the Teton Mountains.

Who could resist carrying such a trophy back, and others in our small group of rafters were green with envy at our find.

As children driving through Wyoming on wonderful western vacations, key chains made from slices of such antlers were actually given away as souvenirs.

That was before the Japanese arrived to pay big money for the antlers which their culture considers an aphrodisiac. Maybe they're the ones hauling them on planes nowadays, previously a very rare event.

Our intent was to mount them on one of our very tall 100-year-old Norway Spruce trees. So we telephoned Frontier who said it would be allowed as freight if its points were safely protected.

Buying some old hose at a gas station took care of that and off we flew. This was around the time planes were being hijacked to Cuba. "It's OK with us if you can get it through security", an airline official told us.

Can you visualise someone marching up to the cockpit holding those large antlers and demanding, "Take me to Cuba".

Everyone seemed absolutely intrigued by the impressive rack. We thought it would go as baggage, but the purser actually strapped it into a first class seat, both on Frontier and connecting on TWA in Denver, while we rode in economy.

It looked marvellous mounted up in the tree for years . . . until squirrels with gourmet taste decided nibbling on it was a tasty treat and it slowly eroded, disappearing entirely.

It was a travel agent who revealed her encounter with United Airlines' strict new baggage charges in late May. She had been on a study tour to Maui, Hawaii, then on to Lanai and Molokai gathering information to pass on to travel clients.

On the return she learned if your checked-in suitcase weighed as little as one pound over the allowed 50 pounds, there was a one-hundred dollar penalty.

"It doesn't make sense when a second bag costs only $25, not 100", she lamented. Hers weighed 58 pounds (overseas weight allowance used to be 70 pounds).

More than slightly annoyed, she opened her suitcase, abandoning four pairs of shoes and transferring a few items to her carry-on. "Passenger reaction was as close to a riot as I want to see at any airport", she recalled.

Certainly travellers are sympathetic with airline expenses and can appreciate the crisis they're facing. But Chicago magazine's recent issue covering executive salaries reported United's President last year was paid $34 million while employees experienced serious cuts in theirs.

Putting a finger on the scale isn't exactly new. I remember Eastern Airlines insisting on charging us on a trip from West Palm Beach eons ago when our case was only one pound overweight.

Over a dozen years ago, I somehow started receiving Cathay Pacific's employee newsletter.

After a trip around the world via Pan Am which included Hong Kong, I landed on their mailing list. But not for the kind of travel press releases one would expect, but through some mistake I was put on what can best be described as confidential inside information.

They were going through tough times and issue-after-issue was full of instructions to employees how to "enhance revenue by charging for every pound of excess baggage." In fact, exactly how to pursue it.

Detailed examples were given of how much they were able to extract from specific celebrities in first class, photos included. Also included was their employee pin-up-of-the-month . . . and there were some cases where they could have given Playboy Magazine lessons.

The whole thing was very eye-opening, until they realised they'd made a terrible mistake and took my name off their mailing list. It was all enough to convince me to avoid Cathay Pacific at all costs.

That impression was confirmed when a good friend who was a top executive at Northwest Orient Airlines told me he shared my opinion after he'd been charged for being just one pound overweight.

"They make no exceptions, even for executives of other friendly airlines," he complained.

Obviously if there weren't rules, there are those who would march aboard pulling a wagon down the ever narrowing aisles with enough carry-on to fill half the storage bins.

It's only fair to be realistic. How long can airlines survive if operational expenses far exceed profits. Their balance sheet is not that much different than each of our personal ones. It can't continually survive in the red.

This may only be the first step in their struggle for survival. Be prepared.

What's next? Hopefully not the New Guinea scene in which this journalist was a participant. Flying from one remote airstrip to yet another grass clearing along the Sepik River, we were all lined up beside a very large scale in a shed.

There were only a handful of us who had paid the extra supplement after a travel writers convention in Australia to join this wondrous adventure.

Warned and rewarned about packing light and constantly reminded to limit purchases of New Guinea's tempting artifacts, this was an unexpected moment of truth.

First each writer was asked to step on the sale, their weight carefully recorded. Then their baggage was put beside them to be weighed. On these very remote jungle flights, total plane weight can mean survival.

Aware of shopping temptations for rare museum-quality items ahead, this traveller arrived with a very minimal tote bag containing only the barest of necessities. Marvellous story boards and hand-carved treasures seemed far more important to this shopper.

When the giant frame of six-foot-six-inch, longtime journalist friend Dave Bruce stepped on the scale along with his supersized hard-sided suitcase, it was enough to set off an alarm equal to four other passengers.

Can you visualise a future filled with scenes like that! Are airport riots far behind?

So you discover a glorious irresistible treasure abroad, as we so often have? There are several options, most of which we've used.

Buying a one-of-a-kind, centuries-old highchair in France, we packed it up and shipped it home by American Airlines freight when arriving back at Frankfurt Airport. They generously labelled it "household goods", the most reasonable rate, and it was well worth shipping charges.

Those incredible 1700s gilded, elaborately detailed communion-rail gates from an ancient church actually fit into an oversized suitcase and we happily paid excess charges to American to get them home.

It's something we've often done, shipping home carvings from Mexico, rock specimen's from Arizona's Chiricahua Mountains where grandfather invested in a silver and copper mine, rugs from Turkey, and on and on.

It's not unreasonable to expect more and more such changes in future for airline survival. Yes, it once cost only two cents to mail a letter . . . today sending a small envelope of columns Federal Express to Bermuda costs between $50 and $70.

But mail that once moved by Pony Express taking weeks to arrive is now jet propelled and can behalf way around the world din only days. We have to expect to pay for that privilege. So far many of these extra airline charges are only for domestic travel, and some airlines treat their premium passengers more generously. Many others don't.

The individual who is booking your travel will know all the details as they continue to change over this is challenging summer.

Be sure to ask up front so there are no overwhelming surprises at the airport.