Baggage Fees Turn Five Years Old
Hey, baggage fees happy fifth birthday!
Even if passengers aren't eager to celebrate, airlines are. economy was spiraling down.
"That was a watershed year that scared the bejeezus out of the airline industry," said Mark Gerchick, an aviation consultant who has just released a book, Full Upright and Locked Position. Even as ticket sales were sliding,prada handbags, jet fuel prices were shooting to historic highs.
"Suddenly, everyone's thinking changed in the industry,ferragamo belts," he said. Rather than try to provide a single price for comprehensive service, airlines started charging fees typically $15 per bag to boost revenues.
Today,coach outlet store, fees are not only the norm; they are heading higher still. Checking a bag now costs $25 to $35 on most domestic flights,abercrombie, and roughly three times that amount on many overseas flights. And on any given flight, just about everything comes with a price tag from 2 more inches of legroom to a can of Coke.
One carrier, Denver based Frontier Airlines, has announced it soon will begin charging up to $100 for a single carry on bag for any customer who fails to book through the company's own website.
Having people book directly online eliminates payments to travel agents and "is a big cost saver for us,polo ralph," Frontier spokeswoman Kate O'Malley said. And, of course, it also generates yet another stream of revenues.
Now United Airlines is trying a new approach, offering annual "
Gerchick said the ever onward march of fees reflects the impact of a single idea that took hold in the summer of 2008. Carriers realized they would have to "unbundle" the air travel experience charging passengers for each service,christian louboutin outlet, such as checking bags, changing tickets, getting a snack box and so on, he said.
Fees have allowed the airline industry to reshape its business model. passenger airlines collected $3.5 billion in bag fees and an additional $2.6 billion in reservation change fees. That totals $6.1 billion in fees and as luck would have it, airlines made a profit of roughly $6 billion. In other words,coach factlet outlet online, airlines just break even on flying their customers; they make money by dreaming up fees.
In this age of fees for everything,ralph lauren pas cher, nudists may feel their lifestyle now makes more sense than ever; they're comfortable traveling light. But most people do need to bring along some clothes when they head out of town.
Gerchick says that need has set off a game between travelers and airlines. "It's like the 'Spy vs. Spy' cartoon in Mad magazine," he said. Passengers attempt to cram everything into carry on bags, and airlines use sharp eyed gate attendants to watch for "non complying" bags.
The typical size allowed onboard is no more than 45 "linear" inches,air max, that is,louboutin, 22 X 14 X 9 inches in size,air max 95, and no more than 40 pounds in weight. If a traveler tries to hoist a "non complying" bag into the plane's overhead bin, she might be forced to pay a "gate bag fee" for having to check it belatedly. Rather than pack a bag, a traveler can stuff clothes, makeup, an electronic tablet and whatnot into the pockets of the puffy outfit and get onboard without having to pay any bag fees.
However, a recent test of wearable luggage at Washington's Reagan National Airport taught one NPR journalist this lesson: Security guards will look very hard at anyone trying to get into the gate area while sporting a bulging vest.
Doesn't this sort of fee avoidance effort to say nothing of the fashion statement take the fun out of traveling?
For some, yes,oakley, but most people seem to understand that they and the airlines are trying to outsmart each other,hogan outlet, and they have come to accept the fees game as part of today's traveling experience,ray-ban sunglasses, Gerchick said.
The latest customer polls reflect that acceptance. Power Associates airline satisfaction study for 2013. Power Associates, said in a statement.
Another recently released survey, called the American Customer Satisfaction Index, shows customers hate airlines' cramped seats but are adjusting to the other realities of today's air travel experience. In fact, satisfaction has risen for two straight years a time when fees were sharply increasing.
Ironically, the improvement in customer satisfaction to some degree reflects the positive impact of higher fees on baggage handling, Gerchick said. Over the past five years, passengers have been cutting back on checked bags, which means airline employees are better able to handle their workloads,nike mercurial, he said.
And since 2008, the biggest carriers have merged, leaving the airline industry more financially stable. That means carriers can afford to invest in new services that customers want, such as better luggage tracking technology and more Wi Fi on flights.
"It was considered outlandish when the airlines started charging fees five years ago," Gerchick said. "But now, it's a matter of routine people have started to accept that it's the new normal. And for airlines, fees are a key component of revenues."

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