After years of paying for checked bags and consequently seeing more and more people trying to squeeze their humongous carry-on into the much smaller overhead compartments, the other shoe has dropped. Airlines see an opportunity to charge you for something else - they will go for it 100%.
Spirit Air has now started the latest fee-bonanza with a $45fee of trying to bring an oversized carry-on onboard. Tscha-tsching! :) :)
I bet Delta & American are next within the next 3 weeks. Anyone wanna counter-bet me?
Here's the story:
The discount carrier is going to start charging $30 for any carry-on item larger than 16 x 14 x 12 inches, according to the airline's online site, which would include most roll-aboard luggage. If you're a member of the airline's loyalty club, the bag will only run you $20, although if you try to check it at the gate, get out the credit card, because the gate agent is going to want $45 if you want to board with the bag.
The new fees start today and apply to flights on or after Aug. 1. Passengers are still allowed a free "personal item," a bag no larger than 16 x 14 x 12 inches that "must fit under the seat." Passengers also are allowed a few "excluded items," including an umbrella, camera, diaper bag, car seat or stroller, reading material, outer garments and food for the flight.
The move is the latest within the airline industry to increase the bottom line without raising the advertised price of tickets (a technique they no doubt learned from the cruise industry). Because online booking sites such as Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia offer side-by-side comparisons of fares, airlines are doing everything they can to keep the price that appears in the search lower than the other guys. They can keep rates artificially low by charging fees (ancillary charges) that don't show up in the booking cost, including luggage and, now, carry-on luggage.
Frankly, once carriers started charging for checked luggage, it was just a matter of time before this happened, if only because the checked-bag fee drove many more passengers to bring luggage onboard, a ripple that created longer boarding times and delays industrywide.
(It also led to a brand of passenger that tried to smuggle on bags the size of a steamer trunk, hoping that no one would notice, like an elephant trying to hide behind a tree. Hopefully, this will put an end to that particular brand of stupidity -- at least on this one airline.)
It's unclear if the move is in large part an attempt to discourage large carry-on bags -- you save $5 on domestic flights by checking the bag. Will other airlines follow? Count on it, although most will wait to see if consumer groups try to burn Spirit in effigy.
No big surprise here - it was a long time coming. Asian airlines already cracked down on it a while ago.
