rolov

CO charges $ 100/150 (dom/INTL) for excess baggage over your allowance based on class/elite level .

Renard

My uneducated guess is that CO will eventually follow if this pans out for the competition and doesn't cause too many problems in collecting the fee and with people trying to avoid the fee. Of course the usual exemptions would apply.

chasbondy

If CO doesnt follow suit, guess whose planes will fill up for the dead SeptDec 15 time period

pbarnette

Ummm... Whoever has the lowest price at checkout?

CAL PHL FLYER

CO needs to adopt the $15 fee for 1st bag..They have to cover the cost of doing business..@:-)

MrAndy1369

No. Just no. This nickel and diming has to STOP. It's out of control.

pbarnette

But it won't. The airlines have a lot of fixed assets. If they don't fly the planes, they don't use those assets. So, they chase market share as a way to fill the planes. But this chase means they can't raise fares to where they need to be. So, they resort to nickel and diming.

I mean, look at the fare hike that just failed. It was something like $20. It looks like everyone will go along. Then, low and behold, CO decides to back off, "for competitive reasons." Everyone else has to backtrack, and we are back where we started. The airlines have no choice but to nickel and dime, because the market won't support building the costs into the fares.

rw2841

I question whether or not the business traveler market that pays the already high fares, and generates the yields, will tolerate being nickel and dimed. If CO is going to play the nickle and dime game, they need to figure out how to focus it on the leisure traveler who shops the lowest fare. Not charging the baggage fees to Elites is a partial solution, but it doesn't deal with the business traveler who is not a OP member with elite status.

pbarnette

While I don't necessarily disagree, I would offer:

1) Just how big is this high-fare market to begin with? Many, many, many companies restrict travel to the cheapest option or to preferred suppliers. Very few pay more money just to pay more money. Because of that, average prices that are below cost (as we have now) would seem to be driven as much by downward pricing pressure from the business travel community as it is by leisure travelers.

2) Do those who genuinely pay high fares really care? Most business travelers aren't paying out of pocket anyway. And the experience of the hotel industry ($20 continental breakfast, anyone? $20 per day for WiFi?) suggests that, as long as the charges can be passed on to the employer or the client, business travelers do not really care whether all costs are baked into the price. That these costs are most ridiculous at the most expensive hotels might even further bolster the case that the truly high-yield customers are completely ambivalent.

Finally, there is the issue of whether the "nickel and diming" isn't preferable. Assuming that the two options are $15 each way to check a bag or $15 added to the fare, isn't it prefereable to only pay the fee when you need to check a bag, rather than paying it when you don't? Sure, it requires a little more thought to compare prices, but at least you only pay for what you use.

rw2841

You make some good points. In CO's case I suspect that the H and Y fare passengers are a material percentage of the total domestic load, so alienating them wouldn't be a good idea. The person paying all of the hotel costs you mention only has to pay once, when he checks out, so he isn't really being nickled and dimed. The business traveler who needs to check a bag, doesn't like to be bothered with having to reach in his pocket and pay at the counter when checking in, and then deal with a $15/$25 charge on his expense report. So, even if he doesn't really care about the fee, he does care about the hassle.

ssullivan

At least these baggage charges so far have excluded elites, which helps protect the loyalty of the very frequent business travelers. I still disagree with this type of fee, and believe it's going to erode market share in the long-run for the carriers that adopt it, unless everyone adopts it. It's the same idea as the fare increases, that only work when everyone goes along. As long as some of the discount airlines, especially WN, continue to avoid instituting this type of fee, they will have an advantage. If the price of a ticket is the same on CO as it is on WN, which is frequently the same, there are a lot of passengers who buy on price who'll see all of the marketing blitz on WN's website promoting no fees for non-alcoholic drinks, snacks, and first checked bags, and those passengers will be more likely to buy the ticket on WN. In the long run it's cheaper that way, especially if you're flying a family of four-five people. Five people checking four bags, and each buying a soda on board for $2 each way (or buying one in the airport to take on board for the same price, if not more), can easily eat up $80. That's a lot of money to spend on services that are complimentary on other airlines.

But this goes beyond just the casual travelers going on family vacations. Many companies with frequent travelers are always examining their costs related to travel, and I could see them encouraging travel on airlines that don't have these fees. In those cases, the legacy carriers are not just losing the occasional travelers that only shop on price; they're also losing the more coveted, higher-yield, business travelers.

It's really a tough situation to be in. They've got to raise prices to cover their operating costs, but doing so drives passengers away to competitors who have resisted the increases, knowing if they hold off on price increases, they're likely to pick up more passengers. Lose passengers to the competition that the public perceives as "cheaper," and more seats go unsold, which just makes the situation worse.

zoonil

UA charged for second bag --> And sure CO followed
UA changed baggage limits from 72 lbs to 50 lbs ---> And sure CO followed

zoonil

UA downsized fleet --> And sure CO followed
UA retrenched staff --> And sure CO followed
UA dropped destinations --> And sure CO followed

So I wouldn't be surprised if CO followed UA in the first bag fee

xFF

Couldn't agree more. Too often, the new flow will look like this:

Go to kiosk.
Give bag to agent.
Set down laptop.
Get out card.
Process and sign.
Forget laptop.
Misplace receipt retrieving laptop.
Forget about reimbursement.

Maybe they could come up with some "on account" method to get closer to the hotel or car rental al a carte models. E.g, record the charge at check-in (and post charge to a card of record).

That way, the "pay only for what you use" model begins to make sense.