ButIsItArt

Well, that's the Spirit

Hopefully a more a sign of foolish management than of industry pricing trends

FlyingUnderTheRadar

I have mixed feelings on the idea. On one hand with baggage fees people are bringing more and more crap on to the plane as carry on. So that makes the chances of an on time departure with a full load pretty much nil. Also I believe it is faster to scan checked bags than carry on bags so the security lines should be faster. Enforcement will be easy:

"Please load all carry on bags either wheels first or handle first with your proof of carry on payment plainly visible. Bags in the carry bins not showing the proper proof of payment will be removed and left at the gate"

mdlee3

I don't fly nearly as much as most of you people on here and even I can see various problems with this, but I'll just name a couple that haven't been mentioned or just briefly touched upon here.

Wouldn't this idea slow down the boarding process? I mean, the FA or somebody would have to verify that a bag can go in the overhead bin or not. That would mean either doing it while people are still coming on or waiting until everybody is on and then checking, but the person's bag may not be right above them, which would also slow down the process even more.

If they plan to do this and there is absolutely no way to stop them, then what about the people that actually do the right thing and check a bag, which they already pay for? For doing the right thing and checking a bag, shouldn't they be entitled to carrying-on for free even if it goes in the overhead bin? Only seems fair to me.

divingdancer

Blimey looks like the bosses at Spirit go to the same business school as that robbing "barsteward" from Ryan Air in the UK!!!

Ryan Air are to charge £20 per bag for checked luggage (up from £15) for July and August as they are the busiest months. According to our press he is also in talks with the airplane makers to reduce the toilets to ONE only and then to place seats were the toilets were. Then charge £1 to go to the toilet. (we used to call going to the toilet "spending a penny" over in the UK.....that's inflation for you!!!)

escog

I think one of the main points of this is to fool the various search engines. When doing price comparisons, Spirit will show up as cheaper. I'm hoping that the various search engines (e.g. kayak, expedia, etc.) will simply tack on the cost of carry-on luggage to whatever fare Spirit publishes. I'm pretty sure the vast majority of airline passengers take luggage of some sorts, so if there's a charge for both checked and carry-on luggage, it would not be unreasonable to simply tack on one of those fees to their fare in the search engine.

flatlined

My guess is it would be incumbent upon the gate agents to visually inspect each pax and determine if they have more than one item such as purse or briefcase that needs to go in the overhead. Otherwise, this will drastically increase boarding time if flight attendants have to police the bins.

What a horrible, horrible idea.

cordelli

I think the enforcement is easy enough, if the fee at the gate remains at $45 just give each gate agent a $15 bounty on each bag they catch and collect the price for. They will measure each bag for that fee.

mdlee3

What I meant about enforcement was how do they enforce it once you're actually on the plane? The GA won't follow you onto the plane so somebody on the plane has to take the time to make sure that only bags that belong in the overhead bins end up there.

cordelli

If that's the purpose, and I'm not sure it is, that's easy enough, you will get a tag to put on each bag you pay for, and if they stroll down the row and something is not tagged, they will tell you to put it under the seat.

While everything says if it fits under the seat it's free, I don't believe Spirit has said they will charge you for anything you put in the overhead bin. What they are saying is they will charge for bags that MUST go in the overhead bin, but not for everything you put up there.

It would be silly to have everybody with their feet on the seats and their knees in their faces because there is no under seat room to stretch them out and fly with nothing in the overheads.

jchiguy1

Perhaps the overhead bins could be coin operated like the old airport lockers used to be<G>. Then, at some point, they could expand this to lavs.....It seems to me that there may be no end to this ridiculous nickel and diming of customers.

bocastephen

We're talking about Spirit - would any self-respecting frequent flier actually use this airline, aside from their periodic $9 fare club specials? I'd say this change will stick because their customer base doesn't know any better.

If a real airline, like CO, AA, DL, etc., pulled a stunt like this - the backlash would be swift and furious. Didn't DL try something like this before, essentially requiring all carry-ons to have a special tag to verify it was checked for size, and if you had no tag, it was gate-checked for a fee - and besides the rantings at the DL forum, I believe the general customer populace told DL where to stick it's carry-on tags.

tjl

The search engines might have to include selections as to number of carryon and checked bags, and what airlines one has status on (some waive or reduce some baggage fees for passengers with status).

RustyC

Spirit customers tend to be among the most price-sensitive anywhere. I was on an ATL-FLL flight not long ago where a whole family of 5 (definitely Ma & Pa Kettle types) was flying it with only carry-ons. You do get the sense that quite a few people flying are infrequent flyers and may be taking ground transportation if it weren't for the price. Any extra costs, especially if presented by surprise, do get noticed and cause arguments.

As for the fares supposedly being lowered, they jump around so much on the fares that there really isn't much consistency there anyway. The "passenger usage fee" ensures that even a $0 fare is really $16, and if they start up fuel surcharges on domestic trips, that'll raise the floor even higher. The endgame with the nickel-and-diming bit is that passengers will expect the fare to be $0 because of so many add-ons, whereas what's paid will depend on supply and demand. They're doing yield management and rasising the fares on high-demand days as aggressively as the big airlines, and if you hit too many of the extra charges you could even end up paying more.

bocastephen

Which is probably their plan - almost a bait and switch. Tempt the buyer with a low fare to lock in the transaction, then slam the customer with a slew of extra charges that 'gross-up' the fare to something even higher than if Spirit had just price-matched the competition on fare alone.

Penbank

If a real airline, like Pan Am, Braniff, Northwest, TWA, or United (true) pulled a stunt like this - no peanuts or crackers with beverages, charging for food, no having ticket jackets, charging a booking fee for reservations made by phone, charging for checked baggage, making it hard to redeem awards - the backlash would be swift and furious.

Time will tell if larger airlines have an overhead compartment fee, toilet fee, early boarding fee, early exiting fee, napkin fee, seat fee (the FAA doesn't require a seat as long as standing harnesses are used )