And by the way, there is another Reuters story posted that mentioned that Spirit has seen their booking rise 50% since the announcement. That came from them lowering the base fare and attracting cost concious travelers who will forgo a carryon to save money.

So as is customary with these fee schemes that lower the base cost of the ticket, people complain and complain that it isn’t right, but then they go buy the tickets. So what is an airline that competes with Spirit to do. If they see their bookings drop 10 or 15 percent as people jump to Spirit’s cheaper base fare. Are they going to stand by idle? They’ll either spend money trying to convince you their better (SouthWest) or they’ll lower their base fare, slap on a baggage fee and compete for the customer.

At the end of the day, the vast majority of fliers care about one thing the BASE FARE. So if an airline can figure a way to lower that base fare, they will. And there is an old saying that goes with that, you get what you pay for. You want a cheap fare, you get cheap service. You want better service you by it ala cart. Or fly business class with one of the major. See you all in the skys. I’ll be the guy on United who paid the $50 for the extra leg room seats in the front.

I’m not sure, but your post appearing the same day as this NY times article suggests that your post is an analysis of the meme they started? http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/busine ss/07bags.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a6

Either way, I think that article clearly identifies the trend – i.e. that airlines are going to continue charging for every service separately, and whatever fees they don’t make in checked baggage (because people check less, whatever) will be replaced by lucrative ‘cargo’ fees.

I find particularly moronic the quote from the Sprint Airlines CEO -> ‘Nobody brings their package to FedEx or U.P.S. and expects them to ship it for free…’ Uh, hello, I (and my bags) are your package, so the comparison is not apt. The appropriate one would be if FedEx charged you for shipping your package AND the materials used to transport it AND the service incidental to that such as registering it in their system, etc. The logical conclusion of this argument is that airlines will start weighing each passenger and pricing by the pound.

In the end, this will only push people to use air travel less – it will become so costly and/or onerous that people will resort to it only in those ‘must do’ situations. Airlines are sacrificing (again) long term business strategy for short term gains. How many years until the next airline bailout and change of business strategy?

As 2 posters have pointed out, airlines most likely don’t save money by having bags checked.

The variables are multiple but your argument was based on speeding up boarding. If that can be achieved by other means (no assigned seating as in the Ryanair and Easyjet) example then charging for checked luggage is a money maker.

Michael O’Leary (Ryanair CEO) is on record that his ideal customer checks-in online and only carries hand luggage.
This way he saves baggage handling fees and check-in desk rental fees. He doesn’t even need boarding pass printing terminals.

Trust me – he knows how to save every cent: checking bags is BAD for the airline.

Ryanair is increasing its checked luggage fees from £15 to £20 for the busiest summer months of July and August, in a move analysts estimated could raise up to £20m ($30m).

But I thought everyone knew the Pricing 101 stipulates that you price on what the market will bear, not what it costs to deliver.

For a decade, I would always check my second bag during my thrice-yearly trips — until it was lost. I don’t like the idea of being forced to pay to avoid a replay of that nightmare.

I’m not surprised at Spirit’s move, though. Collectively, the airline industry has always lost money, so these kinds of things are pretty much inevitable.

Care to back that up?

Checked bags take up room that might otherwise be used for cargo, and also require paying unionized baggage handlers to load and unload from the plane (versus having the passenger perform that service themselves). Your statement only makes sense after the point where the overhead bins are completely full (at which point the plane may be delayed by gate-checking bags).

The larger cost of baggage fees is probably the weight of the bags (in terms of increased fuel consumption). In this case, airlines have chosen to charge for checked bags, guessing that they will, on average, be heavier than bags that passengers are willing and able to carry onboard (due to the size restrictions placed upon carry on luggage).

In theory, the airlines should weigh the passenger plus the passenger’s bags and charge a prorated amount based on the total weight, but there are obviously transaction costs associated with that, and the “fee for checked bags” provides a predictable price that consumers are likely to appreciate more than the “variable fee based upon weight”.