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And the next airline to charge for carry-on bags is …

July 14, 2010

We don’t know — yet. But a majority of airline passengers believe it will happen, and probably soon. A new mobile poll by Predicto says 72 percent of users think another airline will follow Spirit Airlines’ lead this year.

Does it matter that American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, US Airways and JetBlue Airways promised Sen. Charles Schumer a few months ago that they’d never do it?

Probably not.

Assuming those airlines honor their commitment, though, who does that leave? Among the major airlines, Continental and Southwest. And a variety of smaller ones, including the likeliest to try this stunt, Allegiant Air.


The poll comes as hearings get underway in Washington on airline fees today. It will be interesting to note what people like Ben Baldanza, Spirit’s chief executive, tell the committee about ancillary fees, especially in light of the fact that his carrier as changed the way it discloses the fees on its site recently.

Will we be paying for carry-on bags someday? Hate to say it, but Baldanza is ahead of the curve on this one. (Here’s an interview I did with him shortly after the announcement.)

It’s probably not a question of it, but when.

(Photo: Caribb/Flickr Creative Commons)

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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16 comments

  • Toni

    They may honor their commitment to Schumer not to charge for carryon, BUT, they may decide to actually enforce size/weight/number limits they’ve ALWAYS had on the books. And that is something I WELCOME. It’s a safety issue, for one thing, along with a fairness issue.
    The folks who pay to check a bag get made into chumps when they see people dragging on stuff that shoulda been checked, or, worse, getting bags checked GRATIS at the gate.. If you show up at the gate with a bag you shoulda KNOWN would be too big to fit, you should be charged EXTRA, above the standard checked-bag fee, just for slowing everyone else down and gumming up the works and gaming the system.

  • Toni

    AND….if you pay to check your bag, and then stow a reasonably-sized carryon (and I’m talkin’ a real CARRYON here, say, one you can hang off your shoulder) in the overhead bin, you have every right to be mad when someone else asks you to stow that under the seat in front of you so they can put their honkin’-big suitcase up there. As a flight attendant who travels on her time off for pleasure, I’ve seen more than one person say, “No, I paid to check a bag so I could stretch my legs out. I suggest you do the same,” to folks trying to commandeer overhead bin space for bags that should never have been dragged through security.

  • http://MonkeyBrewster.com Cornelius Aesop

    I hope that no one jumps on board with Spirit to the point that they retract this carry on bag charge. It is getting to the point where I need to budget a minimum extra $100-$200 for the taxes and fees online and at the airport.

  • Preston Bauman

    I think we might consider another side of this. As a veteran air warrior (over 4300 flights in my life) I can tell you flying today is not what it use to be.

    Recently I took a trip that put me on 8 flights in 13 days. Let me tell you the amount of time it took to board/exit because of all the carry on luggage was amazing. I like most people do not like getting nickle and dimed to death and want the lowest fare I can find. This however brings tradeoffs.

    Its called ala carte. We remember when one price allowed you a ton of bags, free food and sometime drinks. The ability to hold many reservations at once, enough flight attendants to handle it all. Being able yo use your ticket on any plane or airline leaving when you were.

    I could go on.

    Before you yell for regulation, be careful for what you wish for.

    Remember “Fly the Friendly Skys”

    Vaguely!

  • KF

    I’m guessing the airlines will wait a few months to see how the public reacts to Spirit’s fares – words are one thing, but if people are still booking flights, that’s confirmation that people will put up with the fees. And unfortunately there are those of us who won’t or can’t check a bag for a variety of reasons.

    I think in the meantime we are more likely to see airlines strictly enforcing their carry on rules or maybe revising them and limiting carry on items to a single bag of X size.

  • Clifw

    “words are one thing, but if people are still booking flights, that’s confirmation that people will put up with the fees”

    well, that’s it, isn’t it? I’m yet to see any hard evidence that passengers have been flocking away from checked baggage charges towards Southwest.

    As long as consumers want $99 fares, they seem prepared to put up with almost anything.

  • Chicky

    You know, I don’t mind when people carry on bags. I have a regulation-sized rollaboard that I put in the overhead, on the narrow side, so others can use the space.
    What gets me is when people who OBVIOUSLY are more important than I and have much more urgent destinations nearly cause lethal injuries in their haste to drag their bags down on top of my head. Or those who stow everything in the overhead and then spend half the flight rummaging around in it, rather than getting out what they need, putting it in their personal tote or whatever, and using it from there. Of course, all this rummaging means they have to block traffic while basically re-packing their bag while it’s still in the overhead after landing. Grr. I’d almost advocate having a coin deposit slot on every overhead. Every trip inside costs $1. LOL.
    I like to travel light, and I’d almost be more willing to pay for a carry-on and know that it will get to my destination with me, than pay a requisite amount for a checked bag, still with no more guarantee it will arrive when I do.

  • Bill

    I’d really like to see them enforce the carry on bag size limits. That causes a lot of trouble.

    I don’t want to have to be forced to check my carry on that does comply because they had let on a bunch of bags that were too big…

  • Steve

    I agree with Chris that Allegiant seems most likely to try it. After all, they already charge a fee simply for booking with them. IMHO, it seems like their market is infrequent leisure flyers who are more likely to accept whatever fee is thrown at them either out of ignorance or apathy.

    I would guess Southwest is the least likely, since if they wanted to increase revenue through new fees the logical first step would be charging for the second checked bag. Doing that would probably provoke less of a backlash than charging for carry-ons, since by and large the public has come to consider bag fees to be “normal.”

  • Erika

    I’m with the others who have stated they would like to see enforcement of the carry on rules. That little measuring tool that they have by the boarding counter? It should be regularly used. I travel about 50% of the year – with multiple flights per month. Since the advent of checked bag fees I’ve seen more and more people bring luggage which SHOULD be checked on the plane as carry ons. Most of these bags would not fit in the measuring device unless you were The Incredible Hulk and smooshed them in.

    What’s worse is when one person brings on 2 of these suitcases plus their “small personal item” which is often the size of a duffle bag. Then there are the folks who have so overloaded their carry ons that they can’t even lift them into the overhead bins. (I’m just waiting for the day when one of the bins collapses due to exceeding its weight limit).

    I could go on and on. But, the long and short is, if charging for carry ons will prevent some of these behaviors than I’m all for it. It is, after all, a safety concern.

  • Arizona Road Warrior

    My vote will be US Airways.

  • noah

    I can’t wait for them to start charging for carry-on bags. Anything to discourage people from carrying on those giant wheelie bags…

  • cjr

    “I’d really like to see them enforce the carry on bag size limits. That causes a lot of trouble.”
    .
    Occasionally I’ve brought a luggage-sized backpack on the plane. We’re talking something large. Yet, I never had a problem fitting it into an overhead bin. And I’ve never had to stow it lengthwise, but it’s always gone straight in and fit. There’s plenty of room in the overhead bins, more so if people actually make proper use of the room in the chair in front of them.

    I find the bigger issue to be people who aren’t limited in the number of carry-ons they bring.

  • Simon

    The problem isn’t so much the fees, it is how they are hidden until it is too late.

  • Rabbi Pedro

    There should be NO checked baggage fees at all, however, I have NO PROBLEM with a $500 carry on fee. In fact, I would like to see overhead bins BANNED and return to the open blanket and hat overhead storage of the golden age of flying.

  • Elizabeth

    I wouldn’t mind seeing carry on baggage fees IF AND ONLY IF they get rid of the checked baggage fees (at least for the first bag, they can still charge for the second bag). That should be the way to go. Your “personal item” (laptop, purse, whatever can fit under the seat in front of you) should be free, but if you want to carry on luggage, you have to pay for that. This would make boarding and disembarking so much faster. I’m not a light packer, so I usually just bring my laptop bag on a flight and nothing for the overhead.

    Of course that will never happen because it makes things inconvenient for business travelers. They rely on carry-ons only and rarely check baggage to save time.

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