Airline Add-on Fees
James sent this ‘toon. It reflects the current air travel environment with beleaguered airlines employing tactics used successfully by telephone and utility companies to bolster their bottom lines — add-on fees. The strategy is to remove all perks and comforts, then gradually reintroduce them as part of an à la carte menu of fee based options. Baggage fees were first, presumably to test the water, and now there’s talk of charging a premium for aisle and window seats.
Where will it end? It won’t, not unless passengers decide not to fly at all. Vacation train travel, or simply staying home, seem more attractive options every day.
Of course, business travelers are stuck between a rock and a hard place, and the airlines will likely continue to stick it to them. But even business travelers will cry uncle at some point. Or will they? More likely, corporate America will simply pass on the additional costs of doing business to consumers.
Doug
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Reader Comments (9)
I wonder if the airlines have thought this all the way through. The new rules seem to allow you to check any number of bags as long as you pay the fee. I suspect if this is true that it will lead to unintended consequences.
Most flights I've been on recently have overstuffed luggage bins as it is, and people who try to force too-large bags into the bins are already holding up the boarding process.
My prediction: More late departures because of slower boarding, and more angry customers because of full bins.
My questions: Will they charge for gate-checked bags, and if not, will this become a way around the fee? Also, might this lead to actual enforcement of the rules on over-sized carry-ons?
I hear that Southwest Airlines, capitalizing on American's ham-handed policy to charge passengers for baggage, has run ads in the Wall Street Journal announcing that they won't be #$*!%ing customers with extra fees. Good move, Southwest!
Everyone says that the airlines are struggling, that handling baggage costs money and they should be allowed to pass the cost on to passengers. Helloooo.... they have been doing that forever. All their costs are represented in their ticket prices.
OK, costs have gone up, and it is logical that ticket prices would increase to reflect that. But the airlines are double dipping - raising ticket prices AND charging separately for things already covered in the cost of the ticket. That is wrong!
In a real world scenario, the airlines would charge $500 for the oxy masks, credit cards only.
The Southwest ad is in the form of a coupon that reads: "Don't #$*!% me over" followed by a list of things they won't charge for. VERY cool move on their part, very typical of Southwest.
I am sorry, but if the airlines hope to recover the additional costs of fuel which has to have tripled in the last year, I don't see how charging for a second bag can make a dent. Am I missing something?
Missed that ad in the WSJ. When did it run?
That's how a savvy corp thinks! Kudos to Southwest!
You have to hand it to Southwest. They sure do a lot of things right. I had not heard about them not adding extra fees, so this just shows how they are going to capitalize on American and United as they shoot themselves in the foot.