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The day after: is the era of free luggage really over?

May 22, 2008

Delta Air Lines says no. United Airlines is seriously studying it (is there an exam coming up?). Other airlines are staying quiet after American Airlines’ controversial announcement that it will start charging $15 for the first checked bag.

So is the era of “free” luggage really over, as so many pundits — including yours truly — declared yesterday?

American Airlines shows no sign of backing down. Late yesterday, the following notice appeared in its internal system:

In addition to the fee increases that AA announced this morning, we have announced that customers will be charged $15.00 for the first checked bag effective for tickets issued on/after June 15, 2008 for travel within/between the U.S., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. For customers flying to/from Canada, the first checked bag fee will apply for tickets issued on or after July 7, 2008. The same exemptions and policies that are in place for the second checked bag fee, outlined in BAG INFO, will also apply for the new first checked bag fee. As a reminder, a few of those exemptions are:

* Passengers who purchased a First or Business class ticket

* AAdvantage Elite status members

* Passengers whose tickets are issued in Y/B/H inventory

We are in the process of updating all baggage reference files and will complete them as quickly as possible.

A Continental Airlines insider suggested that the airline might adopt the first-bag fee soon.

This first bag fee is certainly in the mix. There’s a benefit on the back end.

When customers write in to complain of some horror related to this new fee – then BONUS for the airline is they will have a new compensation tool in the form of a free baggage check voucher. It’s a win-win from a customer care management perspective, because you already collected the money, you are not going to refund it, BUT you can appear as if you are offering a goodwill gesture with a voucher.

Remember, customer care departments are trying every possible way to cut back on compensation levels. This would actually provide a new one.

Oh, wow. I hadn’t thought of that.

Meanwhile, passengers are feeling cornered by this new surcharge. Josh Kaufman pointed out that American is essentially forcing passengers to pay the $15 since they can’t carry a number of things aboard a plane, including liquids, gels and sharp objects.

The fee would only work if the airlines decided to enforce the carry-on size rules. It’s time that they stopped people from carrying on a suitcase that takes up more than half the overhead bin.

If your row doesn’t get called to board early on in the boarding process, you’re going to be forced to check your bags because there will be no more overhead space available. Are they
going to charge the $15 then?

We probably won’t know until June.

Got any bright ideas on how to fix this mess? Let my friends over at the US News Money & Business blog know.

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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25 comments

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  • Skip

    I’m fed up… today will cancel my AA miles mastercard – then kiss those worthless AA miles good by, and honestly if this is the way AA will fly, they will do it without me.

    -Skip

  • paul Susmann

    i for one am getting very tired at the way these characters manage to slip it up our butts every other day. Yes, oil prices are going through the roof and perhaps a fuel price adjustment periodically is called for, but this is the straw that broke this camel’s back also. I too am cancelling my AA mileage card and donating my airmiles to charity.. i will never fly AA again.

    Why dont we ALL get together nationwide / worldwide and call for a NO FLY day… Lets all boycot the airlines for 1 day worldwide. Cancel an existing flight, avoid making a reservation for that particular day… Lets show them a real blip in the traffic pattern.

    Years ago, we used to have rent strikes.. They worked beautiffully… Why should we continue to put up with this nonsense? Lets hit them where it hurts for 1 day.

    Otherwise, we all should quit complaining and just pass agound the 1kg bottle of vasoline.

  • Canadian Agent

    There is no doubt in my mind that the days of free checked in luggage are coming to a very quick end. Once one airline puts the ball in motion, the rest will follow. Don’t be surprised if they up the fees to check in every single piece of luggage as well (if they haven’t already started that, too). Eventually there will also be fees placed on carry on luggage. Airlines are getting away with gouging the public and they are not going to stop until they’ve exhausted every possible way of imposing fees on travellers.

    Airline travel should never have been allowed to get to this point. It’s really sad to see because it never used to be this way.

  • Kathleen Much

    I suspect that the bag fee is another gimmick to tie passengers to an elite flyer card. I certainly won’t be choosing American anymore. I used to fly AA a couple of times a year, but with the bag fee they will no longer beat UAL’s prices, and I have Premier Executive status on UAL (so no bag fee if they copy AA’s gouging). Not that I love United; I’m just tied to it because I live near SFO, their hub.

  • http://www.tourdetourdefrance.com Andrew Chadeayne

    If the issue is mass, and the cost of transporting mass, then why isn’t the price determined by the total mass that a person brings on board. Why should a 100 pound person with two bags pay more than the 300 pound person with a carry on who needs a seatbelt extender.

    This should be easy– weigh the person with their luggage at the airport and make the first 200 pounds part of the base price, adding (or perhaps subtracting) based on the difference from that mass.

  • Anthony

    Here’s some ideas for the airlines to fix this mess:

    1) Itemize the costs on the receipts and raise the fares according to fuel costs. Everyone understands that the cost of fuel goes up; we all feel the pain at the pump. Airlines are more likely to get sympathy if they add a fuel surcharge and raise their ticket prices than they are to charge for the first checked bag. What are they going to do if fuel goes up even more? Charge more for the bag?

    2) Airline partnerships. It might be cheaper for airlines to be regionally focused, rather than trying to maintain a presence across the whole U.S. But for this to work, airlines would need agreements to transfer luggage, accept tickets, etc. Ideally, this would also increase competition with more smaller airlines popping up.

    3) A tongue in cheek proposal: Make people go to the bathroom before they board and throw away any garbage. This could lighten the plane by a few hundred pounds, saving on fuel. And if people wear bikinis and bathing trunks, more weight could be saved on clothing.

    As long as the airlines are coming up with fees, how about some new fees, just like banks are always imposing:
    a) Pay toilets on airplanes. Just swipe your card and for $2.00, you can use the airplane bathroom.

    b) A fee to use the automated check-in machine. Now, when a passenger inserts a credit card to get the boarding pass, the credit card gets charged $2.00. After all, the machine has to be maintained, right?

    c) Magazine fee. Airlines can charge a dollar for passengers to read the fancy magazine that’s in the seat pocket.

    d) Cup and napkin fee. This is much better than just pouring the drink into a passenger’s hand. American Airlines can break some new ground by charging for the *first* napkin.

    e) Electronics fee. All those electronics that passengers use, from MP3 players to notebook computers cause interference with plane electronics, right? Charge them the same it costs for those lousy headphones, and maybe they’ll watch the edited movie instead of their own movies on their own computer.

    f) Window and Aisle seat fee. Maybe this will drive people into those dreaded middle seats.

    g) Credits for anorexics. Hey, not everything has to be a fee.

    h) Charge pregnant women as two passengers. After all, they’re already eating for two. Just think: twins or triplets! A true gold mine.

  • http://notravelmlms.blogspot.com John F

    h) Charge pregnant women as two passengers. After all, they’re already eating for two. Just think: twins or triplets! A true gold mine.

    Are you suggesting we allow the airlines decide when life begins–at conception or birth? Although a mile high fee I might consider….

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  • Michele

    Seems to me that airlines blame most of their fees and price hikes, indeed, most of their changes for the past year or so, on high fuel costs. Sooo…instead of just blaming that and making passengers fork over the difference, why don’t the airlines all band together to lean on the oil companies making $40billion in profits? In fact, all industries-airlines, cruise companies, hotels, transportation (have you seen the poor truckers’s fuel bills!), grocers, etc should put the blame where it needs to be and act on it responsibily. The oil companies whine that it isn’t their fault and that they need the money anyway to find a future way out of this–but we need the way out NOW! Congress isn’t really doing anything, Bush doesn’t care, Cheney is jumping for joy over the profits, and the rest of us just keep paying and paying and paying. The answer should not be that we all have to change our entire way of life so that some oil company exec can make millions. For goodness sake, those making at or close to minimum wage have to work most of the day to pay for transportation and then they go to the grocery store and all their necessities are twice as high too (national minimum wage is going “UP” to $6.55 on July 24). How do you get out of the poverty trap like that? Enough. We need the airlines to step up and help force the oil companies to realize the entire economy is suffering at their expense.

  • Regina

    I think it’s truly appalling. I can see charging for a second bag, but for one bag? First they eliminated food, then blankets and pillows…now you can’t even check a bag. What’s next, paying to use the john?

  • Bob Beilstein

    I can’t begin to imagine the havoc this will cause. For instance:

    1. It can be taken as a given that far more people will choose to carry their stuff on the plane, rather than pay the fee. This will, at least initially, cause utter havoc at the TSA security checkpoints as people try to carry on everything they would have normally put in their checked luggage. Can you imagine being stuck behind hordes of people trying to bring aboard full-size bottles of shampoo, giant tubes of toothpaste, various tools and implements, etc. Now multiply that by several million. :-(

    2. Boarding will be interesting, especially given that overhead space is already tight. It actually might not matter much on American Eagle’s RJ’s, since a checked bag and a gate checked carryon still go in the same cargo compartment. Though it DOES mean that boarding and deplaning will be considerably slower, with far more gate-checked bags to handle. On mainline jets, where overhead space is already tight, it’s liable to be an absolute disaster, since far more bags will need to be checked planeside.

    3. Here’s where it gets interesting… If they try to collect the $15 fee after the passenger has already boarded the plane, what will they do if the passenger doesn’t have the $15 in cash? Will they take credit cards? How? Will they call security to drag off the passenger with the rollaboard that won’t fit on the plane (and how long would that delay boarding)? Even if everyone has the cash handy, how long will it delay getting off the gate to collect all of those fees?

    4. What if they DON’T collect the $15 fee, however (or waive it if there is a “problem”)? Then there is an easy way to get around the hateful fee, and EVERYBODY will carryon and hope to have no overhead space (getting their bag checked, and neatly avoiding the $15).

    Any way you slice it, this looks to be a major disaster for AA.

    In a rational world, the solution would be to have fares rise to cover costs. But, of course, the airline business as practiced since deregulation is anything but rational.

    I actually really miss the CAB.

    Sigh…

  • http://www.sallywatkins.com Sally Watkins, CTC

    I was delayed on a flight yesterday and was talking to a fellow delayed passenger. He had paid AA the $ 25 second-bag fee…then his flight was cancelled. He was put on a United flight – and of course had to pay United the second bag fee. When last seen, he was going to an AA desk to find out how to get back the $ 25 it had charged, though he was pushed for time to get to his UA gate. Would have loved to know that answer he got, and wonder what he would have had to go through had he not had time to go talk to AA again then and there.

    I also asked an AA counter clerk if AA really planned to try to collect the new $ 15 fee only at the airport. He said absolutely so — at the counter or kiosks or via sky caps. I cannot imagine. At least some of the small European airlines that charge a luggage fee let you pay it when you buy the ticket, so no cash or credit card transaction has to take place at the airport. That makes much more sense to me if these luggage fees stick…as I think they will.

    We in the industry used to laugh about “Next the airlines will charge to use the restroom!” Well, I may live to see the day.

  • Ed Kummel

    I think we need to assess what this fee is proposing.
    When the luggage was attached to the traveler as a part of the existing ticket, then it was considered as baggage and as such governed by the baggage compensation levels if the baggage is damaged or lost as identified in the carriers ticket/baggage allowances.

    Now that we have to pay seperatly for baggage, it should now be considered a package and should be governed by a completly seperate level of compensation. All shipping companies allow a declared value replacement for lost packages. An example is FedEx:
    http://www.fedex.com/us/services/terms/groundtariff.html#filing
    Scroll down to “Declared Value and Limits of Liability (Not Insurance Coverage)” section 3, it allows up to $50,000 declared value with less restrictions on what is covered than the airline offers for baggage coverage.
    If airlines will offer the same amount of coverage, then sure, I don’t mind paying $15…So yeah, if the airlines are going to treat our baggage as freight, then we should get the same benefits as freight receives!
    Ed
    web/gadget guru

  • Chris

    my only thought …………. as a person who flys, for business and have to check baggage due to items carried, and the only baggage that has not been arriving is the bag that you pay to fly ………….

    shame that even when you pay for the service, they can’t get that done for you !!!!!

  • Candice

    Everyone keeps talking about a $15.00 fee.

    Isn’t it a $15.00 fee EACH WAY and so therefore a $30 fee, since 99.9% of us fly Round Trip.???

  • Nigel Appleby

    I know it’s been suggested before, BUT why don’t they charge for carry on? Just think how much quicker boarding and getting off would be if there were no carry on. Let checked luggaga be free, well not free but included.

  • Judy Nejman

    I’ve got to believe this is going to backfire for American Airlines. All the gas they were hoping to save is now going to be wasted because the boarding process is going to SLOW way down! Since the planes and overhead bin space get smaller and smaller, where on earth are we going to store our “stuff”?Maybe we should have clothing swap shops at each airport. You drop off some clothes as you depart, receive a voucher that you can redeem at the other end for pants, shirts, etc. That way, it’s unnecessary to carry anything on the plane. Sorry about your computers, ipods and business equipment you need to carry. You’ll now need to ship that ahead of time. Let’s give the transportation industry our hard earned dollar and not the airlines! We should also then see reduction in the price of the airline ticket right? They can then convert the cargo hold into seating, and make more money ;) Crazy isn’t it?

  • David James

    On two separate occasions, on past flights, my luggage didn’t arrive at my destination when I did. (Fortunately, these were both return trips home). Projecting this experience to the new policy, if I ante up the fee, and my luggage is detained or doesn’t make the same flight, am I entitled to a refund? Would such refund be on-the-spot or would I have to complete duplicate, triplicate, forms, send them here and there and wait the obligatory 4-6 weeks for my refund? I forsee more problems than this solves. If the airlines really want to charge for luggage, make those passengers who take huge pieces of luggage as their carry on, pay the fee. Of course, if the airlines would enforce the size limits….

  • Jasper

    Quote from a United air attendant om my transatlantic flight yesterday, when I walked to the back of the plane to stretch a bit: “That would be a $5 stretching fee, sir”.

    This is why I like United. At least their personnel knows they work in an insane business.

  • Dave

    I guess I am just contrarian here, but I just do not see the scandal in the airline charging for something that is a legitimate expense to them. A passenger that flies without baggage is cheaper to transport than one who flies with lots of stuff. Weight is one issue, but another is personnel. I for one would rather NOT just raise fares for everyone, but pay for a service only when I need it. I know there was a lot of anger at first when the airlines stopped giving free meals. People figured it out and learned to either eat some other way or to pay for a meal. Why should everyone pay for a service on ly some use? What bothers me much more in the travel industry are so-called fees that are totally unavoidable. These need to be quoted in a base price.

  • Jasper

    @ CE: BTW: I do not like the terminology of ‘free luggage’. It was no free. Passengers were paying for their luggage to be transported through their ticket. So, we are talking about the end of luggage being included in the ticket price, vs being excluded. ‘Free luggage’ really seems to suggest it is reasonable that airlines start charging separately.

    It is not. Passengers want to be transported, including their luggage, from A to B. They want to pay one simply price. Not a incomprehensible addition of fees and charges.

    On another note, I booked some hotels in France last week. What a relief. Pricing still happens for a large part according to season (high and low), and not according to ridiculous constantly changing pricing schemes. It was lovely, to just find the same prices everywhere, and not having to worry about fees and surcharges (ok, except the €0.60/day-visitor tourist tax, I paid one day). Quelle simplicite!

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  • Kathleen Eaton

    Hi,

    Sent this comment/question in before but can’t find it here or any response. However, do see others are begining to ask similar questions.

    If luggage was covered with a ticket price in the past and the airline, therefore, was able to set its own limits on liabiity for lost luggage or damaged luggage, does it follow that a separate charge for each piece of luggage changes the contract? Now that an airline is charging me a fee to take my bag, they are entering into a contract with me to carry and deliver my bag safely (since after accepting the bag, they have control of it and I do not) in return for which I must pay them a fee they set to cover the cost of carrying out their end of the deal.
    If they then lose the luggage, fail to transport it in a safe and timely manner when they make changes in routing or if the luggage becomes damaged or is taken by a thief, do I as a party to the contract have different rights for compensation? Can I then claim the actual cost of my loss in full because the airline failed to complete its contract with me?

    Also, there is really poor security for baggage at carousels. Anybody can pick up my bag and walk away with it. Luggage not immediately claimed is often piled up in an airport area where, again, anybody can walk up and take whatever they like.

    If I am paying a specific fee to the airline to transport my luggage (as one person says, as freight), isn’t the airline then obliged to insure that nobody other than me or my designated agent can claim the baggage? Won’t they have to set up a “manned” office where people present a bagge claim to a “live person” who then ensures that the right bag goes to the right person. Is failure to do this a breach of contract on the part of the airline now that they have established a “separate” fee and therefore a “separate contract” with passengers for the transport of luggage?

    Kathleen Eaton

  • http://www.whistler-outdoors.com/ Joe MacMillan

    This was bound to happen sooner or later. It is only fair. I will travel cross country next summer. I want to take my golf clubs so I will need to pay $20.00 both way by Westjet. My option is to pay or leave them home and rent clubs when I get to the course. But they will not be my clubs and that will be another thing that will foul up my game. I could ship them by mail for gosh knows how much or by bus for about $50.00 each way with no idea of when they arrive or in what condition.
    I will pay Westjet.

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