patgarrett

http://www.theatlantic.com/video/arc...so-bad/281174/

Airline fees are an unstoppable menace, rising from $2.45 billion in 2008 to a mind-numbing $27 billion in add-ons around the world, according a new report from IdeaWorks Co. Where did they come from? How did they become utterly unavoidable?

Eastbay1K

Where did they come from? Why, everyone made fun of People's Express. They went away and are mostly forgotten. Then, someone at an airline looking for revenue remembered them.

formeraa

Airline fees have generally arisen because, after 9/11, airline fares were very low (trying to deserately stimulate demand from a frightened public). The airlines were losing record amounts of money and were forced to cut as much as possible. Most airlines even filed bankruptcy to lower their costs even more. In order to bring in incremental revenue, airlines began to develop an "a la carte" pricing model. If you check luggage, you pay for it. If you want a bad airline meal, you pay for it. If you want early boarding, you pay for it.

It actually makes more sense than a "one-size-fits-all" approach. You pay for what you "consume". On a longer flight, I might buy up to Economy Plus for extra legroom, while on a shorter flight, I would generally decline.

Sant

Due to how fares and fees are taxed, airlines have proven that it is more profitable to sell a seat at an ultra low fare and make up for the difference in fees.

entropy

Why does it make sense that people with 2 50lb steamer bags pay the same amount as someone who carries a backpack on board with them?

There's a fuel cost, a handling cost and a liability cost to handling the bags.

I'm all for the checked bag fees.

craz

Then all Elites should be paying those fees as well

ne52

I saw something last year that one of the execs from Peoples Express was reviving the name and bringing it back on the east coast.

They at least managed to provide better in-cabin service than today's legacy carriers and the fees didn't border on gouging.

greg0ire

"Free" tickets can be a fortune too. My wife and I were considering redeeming miles on AA for LAX-DXB in J, but the $3k on top of the miles was insane. We are now doing LAX-DXB instead for $110 plus miles.

CPRich

The incremental fuel charge to carry a 50lb bag on a 1,000 mile average domestic flight is about $2. The labor cost of lifting loading, unloading that bag is about $1.

I'm OK with usage-based fees, as long as they are aligned with the actual usage/cost. These are not. It doesn't cost $150 to cancel and re-issue a ticket either.

AA_EXP09

Correct. It costs $200

Eastbay1K

It also doesn't cost $99 (or pick your similar low fare) to fly you transcon - it costs more. It also doesn't cost $450 (or pick your similar high fare) to fly you on a last minute SFO/BZN trip. It costs less.

greg0ire

In that vein, the airfare costs whatever someone is willing to pay for it.

Sarfa33

And airline fees are here to stay because they work (making profit for the airlines), so people are obviously willing to pay them.

-S

Spoddy

I've heard that the airlines don't need to pay taxes (or pass them along to us) for fees, but only for the sale of the ticket itself. Fees aren't considered part of the original sale. More money for them.
If that's true, then I wonder how long this would continue should the government decide they want a nice slice of that $2b pie.

I'm grudgingly agreeing with you on that one. The gate staff are very inconsistent for the most part - I've never seen a bag sizer used for example.

This is an idea I'd like the airlines take up - if your carry-on bag is confirmed to be a certain size and weighs less than a certain amount, then it's free, otherwise you start paying by the size or by the pound - or gate check it. I'm sure the airline would care more about the weight before the size though, and I'm still OK with that.

Funny story - while waiting for a flight on UA earlier this year, I was stuck in Group3 (but but but I love the aisle seat, and i paid for E+, so why shouldn't I get on earlier and not last in G5?). So I'm trying not be gate lice, and hanging back. Not so for a couple of passengers, traveling separately by the looks of it, who promptly stood at the front of the Group3 lane when there wasn't anyone else lining up (not even group1 lice). The gate agent promptly walked up to both of them and declared their bags too big and insisted on them being gate checked. Their bags weren't the worst offenders at all, and she knew this because we could easily see worse offenders. They didn't put up a fight and just accepted it.

Often1

There is both a downscale business & leisure market in the US which simply wants the lowest fare possible. The way to achieve that is to unbundle what used to be included, e.g., checked bags, seat selection & meals in steerage.

DL is successfully marketing its E fares which are simply a reservation with a gate-assigned seat. Basically middle seat near the lav. And, they get takers for a $20-30 discount.

I am fine with bag fees and actually would be fine if they were charged to all. There is no non-commercial reason someone can't travel for a week out of the generous carry-on allowance. Those who have a commercial reason, e.g., equiptment and the like, should be paying because I don't need to subsidize their business any more than I expect them to pay the rent.

The only thing really missing is the enforcement of carry-on rules. If UA could get that straight, the system would work, it would have many more satisfied customers and all of it could be done without significant expense.