No surprises here, but US Airways copied its Star Alliance brethren United and started charging a fee for a second checked bag. United announced their change earlier this month. No surprises here, but it still sucks.
As Cranky notes, this isn’t just for domestic travel, either. International flights will be hit with the charge as well.
But as I’ve argued before, the really key point in the spread of “a la carte” pricing is that it’s becoming harder and harder to compare apples to apples. Comparing base fares is increasingly going to be meaningless, as individual customers’ final prices will vary greatly.
And right now, there’s no search engine that’s equipped to help. You’ll need a magic decoder ring to know which airline charges extra for bags, for seat assignments, etc. The Travelocitys, Expedias, and Orbitzes of the world can only quote you the base fare and taxes. Not the real cost.
That’s going to put pressure on other airlines to follow suit. And it’s going to make online fare search that much harder.
(image: gratuitous use of the Staples Copy Cat)
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February 26th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
Okay, so I’m probably in the minority here but I don’t mind the new policy. I RARELY ever fly with more than one checked bag; One at most and I try to avoid that as well. This really is only going to effect those families traveling to Orlando with the kiddies who feel the need to take everything including the kitchen sink on the lowest possible fare.
Kirby said it would only effect 8 percent of their passengers. Maybe that’s a little under inflated but still, Dividen Plus, Military in uniform with ID, special needs, etc, will not have to pay for the extra fee.
It’s all about the fuel. Less weight per pax means less fuel.
US Airways is just making sure they are around in 5,10, 15 years.
Where I see there to be an issue is on the international routes.
If I want a low fare and only take one bag, why would I have to supplement the other passengers who “NEED” to take 3 bags on the trip? Why not charge people for what they use?
February 27th, 2008 at 12:24 am
The lack of comparibility is not good. That’s something those in certain (non-US) markets have had to grapple with for a while due to treatment of fuel surcharges being inconsistent between airlines and even between routings. Just to make it harder the charges are constantly changing.
Lets see, Emirates includes the fuel surcharge in all their figures, Air NZ does within New Zealand and elsewhere in advertising the from figure includes fuel surcharge but the flight selection screen figures exclude it only to be added on the fare screen, …
Yup it’s a pain in the …. keeping track of it all.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if the added complexity drives consumers back to travel agents just when airlines felt they had won significant numbers over to the lower cost online channel?
February 27th, 2008 at 12:59 am
If weight is the issue, then they should charge for heavy checked baggage. Chrging $25 to for two 15-pound bags hardly seems fair.
All this will do is encourage even more people to carry-on those stupid huge suitcases that don’t even fit in the overhead compartment.
I travel with my wife and infant daughter (on our lap), and we routinely check three items; two bags and my daughter’s car-seat for when we arrive at our destination. Our three items probably weigh less than 50 pounds total. Now if we fly USAirways, we’ll have to pay $25 to check the car seat or we could combine our two bags into one large suitcase. It wouldn’t lessen the weight of our luggage or help USAirways at all, but it would make it a pain for us to carry the luggage. USAirways doesn’t benefit, and we end up losing out. That sure makes me want to patronize them.
As an aside, it seems pretty unfair to me that this applies to passengers who have already purchased tickets for this summer who will now have to pay extra. If someone wanted to cancel their ticket based on this policy change, I can’t imagine USAirways could refuse, right? I mean the ticket was bought with certain procing policies in place and now they’re different.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:21 am
I willingly pay $25 every time if a little green tag was attached to my bag which told the luggage guys that the name of the game was not to see who could get the most ‘air’ time with a suitcase as they throw it onto the loading conveyor.
February 27th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
@ Robert:
Please re-read the actual press release:
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=196799&p=irol-newsArticle_print&ID=1112456&highlight=
“The fee only applies to tickets purchased on or after Feb. 26, 2008 for travel on or after May 5, 2008.”
In other words, it doesn’t apply to passengers who had already purchased tickets for this summer.
I would bet that your car seat qualifies as an “assistive device” and is thus exempt from the fee.
@ Simon: Agreed, it’s really amazing what some of these baggage handlers accomplish while loading/unloading an aircraft, all while passengers are staring at them through the aircraft/airport windows.
February 27th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
gratuitous
February 27th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Duly noted, and fixed.
February 27th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
In that case, tally up the weight — passenger plus luggage — and have people pay by the pound.
March 6th, 2008 at 2:44 am
Lame, lame, lame…but then again we just accept $3.00 a gallon too, nothing surprises me anymore.
March 27th, 2008 at 9:34 am
It’s not a weight issue, its a space issue. Airlines frequently load up extra luggage space on planes with cargo, less space taken by pesky passengers more space for paying cargo. simple as that.
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