April 22nd, 2010
3:54
Now You Want To Charge Me For My Carry On Bag? Seriously?
As a frequent flyer I know all too well the headaches that carry-on luggage can cause on a flight. It's usually the people that don't travel regularly that either have bags that are too big to fit in the overhead or bags that don't fit the short way to accommodate more bags. It's frustrating for sure. It can even cause delays. However, for Spirit Airlines and others to consider charging for Carry On luggage, I think you're going about it the wrong way. Sure it's your airline and you can do whatever you want. You can charge whatever you want. No question about that. I think that most will view this as a negative even though you've supposedly lower the price of checked bags and that's my point. You charge your customers either way. It would be different if you said. "Hey if you want to carry your bag on there's a fee, but if you check it then it's free." Although I wouldn't be totally happy with that, at least it would be more fair and perhaps ease much of the pain I've described above. Also since you invested in all of those "your bag should fit in here" kiosks, why not charge the folks with bags that don't fit? Or simply enforce that policy of "if it doesn't fit in here, then you can't bring it on" that you already have and much of this issue would go away.
Here's what the CEO of Spirt Airlines had to say about this:
The Bottom Line
Luckily Delta (the carrier I fly the most) and others did not follow suit and I think they didn't because they know that their customers wouldn't like it. Most travelers are traveling with things that can't be checked such as laptop computers and other fragile items (although a "purse" or "briefcase" is probably still allowed for free). So in effect you're punishing everyone with this policy because most of us don't have a choice. We have to travel with something that we can't check. I'm certainly not going to check my camera gear or other valuables. And again you're charging customers no matter what they do so I don't really see how this is helping anything other than perhaps your bottom line.
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I think most of the excess carry on luggage came when the airlines started charging for checked luggage. I see 5 family members pulling their oversize luggage because they don’t want to pay the additional checked luggage fees for 5 people.
My bigger complaint is when the airline boards from the back to the front but doesn’t ensure the luggage gets loaded from the back to the front too. i.e. put your luggage at the back of the plane by your row 25, not in my space in row 7! Passenger are routinely boarding for the back seats, yet storing their oversized luggage in the front overhead compartments, leaving no space for the last to board. This is something the airplane staff could enforce too. The front rows passengers are often the passengers organized enough to get their advance seating assignments. On my last flight, they tried to have me store my carry on camera backpack under my seat as the back passengers had filled all the overhead with luggage before my seat in row 7. She tried to tell me the overheads were just for suitcases and not backpacks.
I totally agree that they should enforce the sized of carry ons. It takes 1/2 hour longer to board since the airlines started charging for checked luggage and it is a PITA.
The reasons the others didn’t follow suit in charging for carry ons is that a handful of senators got involved. They should have negotiated for removing checked luggage charges and the problem would taken care of itself. Who likes having their 7 year old drag their suitcase? They just do it to avoid the surcharge. If the airlines removed the check luggage charge, more people would again check their luggage. That and enforce the carry on size limitations.
There is just nothing enjoyable about air travel anymore. It is a means to an end.