AJDelvarno

Covered here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...gage-fees.html

ATL787

Great Apples to Oranges comparison by the AJC. Makes great sense to compare a pre-merger Delta bag fee number in 2009 to a post-merger Delta/NW bag fee nunmber in 2010.

Also makes great sense to list the United and Continental bag fee numbers separately in the same article.

I would love for articles like this to actually report a relevant figure like "bag-fees per passenger"....but that will never happen.

FWAAA

I disagree. Even if I had no status, I'd be exempt from bag fees on about 95% of my flights because I check bags only when on holiday with the family and never when flying solo for biz. Accordingly, unbundling bag fees from ticket prices is good for those who almost never check bags. I'd gladly pay bag fees when flying with the family for holiday in exchange for not paying them the other 95% of the time. Of course, with status, I'd exempt from the fees all the time.

PepeBorja

According to Delta they carried 160M passengers for total revenue of $31.8B.

In numbers that means:
$198 net revenue per passenger
$5.95 baggage revenue per passenger (2.95% of total revenue)
1 of 5 passengers paid for bag fees

An airplane with 150 people has an average 30 people paying bag fees. That means the other 120 carry their luggage on board with them, causing the gate hoarding, increased stress to get bin space, and the 30 minute boarding parades.

The whole system was turned upside down for a mere $6 per passenger.

Now that the airline industry has enough data collected ($6/pax) it would be better if the average $6 bag fee was collected on all tickets up front and we get to avoid all of the undesirable side effect of bag fees, especially the endless parade of people carrying their luggage on board.

Management by spreadsheet does not take into consideration human factors. Everyone focuses on the cell with the 2.95% increase in net revenue but there is no cell in the Excel sheet to quantify the human cost to get it.

With numbers like that I can see why Southwest does not charge for bags. No wonder they are the best airline for the casual traveler and budget minded business traveler.

tentseller

The more profit from fees = keep the fare price down.

I like them to stay in business for the good of my lifetime SC membership.

mnredfox

Baggage fees are outrageous these days. How full the SC are is another outrageous thing. So much for those with lifetime...

FWAAA

Casual readers of your post (especially those who haven't flown much for the past 30 years) might conclude that the very recent checked bag fees caused the carryon bag explosion. Nothing could be further from the truth. Carryon bags have been an issue for many years, not just the past three (since first and second checked bag fees were instituted).

You could eliminate checked bag fees tomorrow and the carryon problem would remain. People don't carryon everything including the kitchen sink just to avoid checked bag fees; they carryon far too much because they're tired of airlines "mishandling" their checked bags far too frequently and thus disrupting their business trip or holiday.

Many people carry cameras, computers, jewelry, expensive clothing, etc., on their trips, and only a moron would check those items (as they're likely to be stolen and no airline will cover their loss).

tentseller

I am still waiting for post merger DL to reply to my inquiry as to "life time" meant mine or DL's.

PepeBorja

You are right.

Silly me thinking that MONEY is a MOTIVATOR.

How stupid of me to think that $50 per round trip per passenger increased the quantity of luggage brought on board. What am I thinking? People motivated to save money by bringing their luggage on board? Why? It’s only $50 bucks for the roud trip. 2 bags? $100? It's nothing! Why would anyone bother?

MONEY does not motivate people at all. People bring their luggage on board because it feels good to carry it around and with the odds at 1 in 20,000 of it being lost, who wants to take chances?

AMEX Skymiles offers the benefit of checked bags for free. I wonder if they know that they are placing their members at risk? And why is that a benefit or reason to get the AMEX card? After all, if everyone is carrying their luggage on board what benefit is that?

JORBUST

I agree, congrats to DL, I hope these fees strengthen them as a company.

GUWonder

There is no direct relationship that holds the above to be necessarily true. Instead, the above claim about fee-related profits and fare price suppression is best described as wishful thinking when it comes to the majors.

jamesteroh

I also agree with the bag fees. A checked bag means paying a person at the ticket counter to check it, people to load it and unload the bags, paying people in the baggage claim office, etc. Let the people who use it, pay for the added expenses.

GUWonder

The above is a great rationale for having pay-toilets on board flights too.

A gate-check bag explosion has taken place following institution of a baggage fee policy for even the first standard size-and-weight checked bag for the majority of passenger. The carry-on bag explosion is as large as it is at least in significant part due to airline policies of instituting a policy to charge baggage fees for even a passenger's first checked standard bag.

PepeBorja

"Your honor, I rest my case"

Page 6 has the skinny.

http://www.aci-na.org/static/entransit/dillingham.pdf

http://blog.flightcaster.com/baggage...d-consequences

More nuggets for MONEY being a MOTIVATOR to carry on luggage on board.

http://www.bucksomeboomer.com/are-lu...tipping-point/

http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/view...bde09964410f6c

This one from the NYT says 1 in 6 people did not check bags after the fees were imposed, compared to 1 in 4 when it was free.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/business/07bags.html

And the impact on security lines

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ust...nes-2011-03-16


I love google.

stlBased

I had not found this thread when I originally posted mine (with more data than the AJC article I might add ). Mods, merge if needed please.

However, to ATL787's point, you can calc figures like this -
and while Wikipedia shows 160 mill pax for DL in 2010, the BTS figures actually show fewer (and I think are probably more accurate).

for 2010:
DL bag fees $952.250 mill
DL pax 110,925,000
= $8.585 DL bag $/pax

AA bag fees $580.663 mill
AA pax 86,129,000
= $6.742 AA bag $/pax

DL flts 766,906
$1241.678 DL bag $ / flt

AA flts 619,643
$937.0928 AA bag $ / flt

One might conclude from this data that Delta has been more efficient in monetizing checked bags.