As I'm mailing to board a delta flight out of lax, the Alaska airline boarding next to me has a new way to get people to check your large carry-ons.
They will give you priority zone to board after after VIP members if you gate check your roller board.
Thoughts will delta follow? Looks like a lot of people are taking advantage to the offer.

I think WN does this also, for people who have no carry on bags, only personal items for under their seat.

I have seen Delta do this.

Doesn't make sense though. If you have a carryon for under the seat what is the incentive to board early?

You don't waste time blocking the aisles trying to stuff it in the overhead. If you do indeed have a carry on for only under your seat, then that means it's very small. Hypothetically you would be boarded and seated quickly, thus speeding up the process.

Lead to a lot of people hanging out at the gate. Became a little crazy.

I wonder how many people will still use the overhead for their personal item.

I agree. If I had no carry on, I would board as late as possible to spend the least amount of time on the plane. Who really likes to seat in those cramped Y seats for a longer than needed anyway?

This would be my concern. It would then become counterproductive.

I can see this being an effective bribe on WN but with assigned seats and no PDB for people in coach, who wants to board early except to find space for carryon bags unless the flight is so badly overbooked that you fear duplicate seat assignments.

Still, if DL were to try this, would the offer be to board after zone 1? If so, there wouldn't be many people for whom the offer to check something to board early would matter.

Weren't there reports of AA doing this about a year ago? As a frequent traveler I agree that I have no incentive to board early with only a small item that can fit under the seat. I rarely even board with F in that case. However, the airlines have conditioned travelers, particularly infrequent travelers, to view early boarding as a perk which would make this a win-win; the passengers get the early boarding they desire and the airline gets a more efficient boarding. BTW, I fly WN occasionally and have never heard this announced at the gate.

Yes, AA tested this for a while before the merger. I have heard Allegiant announce it also.

So they are further incentivising people who already shove everything they own into a "carry on" bag that barely makes it through the scanner, cant fit in the overhead, and probably weighs more then my checked bag? People already learned that if it can jam your bag through the TSA scanner then you can gate check your bag for free and avoid $25, $35, $100 etc charges. Now people not only will avoid the fee, but get to board early?

Instead of all these one off ideas just raise prices, bundle ALL services in it, and stop with this awful way of charging for items.

Also these airlines are not making huge profits off of the fees, if they got rid of them they would still have the same profits, but this way they can claim it differently for accounting purposes. I.E. it looks better on earnings reports & gives the appearance of a better return for investors/stock holders.

+1

You beat me to it, but I could not have said it better myself.

Agree with this.

That is why all the people in first class, and especially SKY that line up at the carpet to board right away never made sense. Unless you really like the first class seats, or you are in a bulk head I see no point in waiting on/running to the sky priority carpet.

You are very wrong, 800M for DL alone isn't bad, and DL is the best at it

http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/ri...html/2013.html

My point is if they raised the average ticket price by $30 per one way flight, and gave "free luggage" they would arrive at the same bottom line.