When airlines started tacking on checked-baggage fees, thousands groaned in anticipation of the battle of the bins they knew was coming. With people avoiding checked luggage, there would be more carry-ons, making it harder and harder to get your carry-on in the overhead compartments. Which, in turn, makes early boarding — an elite-level perk — more and more important.
While airline management has been blasé about the effects of increased carry-ons, I’m wondering if planes are boarding more slowly, with takeoffs delayed as flight attendants shuffle and reshuffle bags to make them fit.
My wife just completed a trip on a split itinerary: outbound on US Airways, inbound on Delta. Plane sizes were comparable (e.g., 737-400 vs. 737-800) and flights were equally full.
But she noticed a difference. Her observation (admittedly not a systematic analysis… n=1) was that the US Airways flight boarded much more slowly than the Delta flight. US Airways, of course, has a fee for the first checked bag. Delta only charges for the second checked bag (but charges $50 for that bag). US Airways passengers each had a sizable carry-on, while many Delta passengers didn’t. Boarding and deplaning were both slowed down on the US Airways flight. The Delta flight loaded and unloaded faster, with less mayhem.
If this pattern really were to pan out across the board, then airlines could be hurting their turn-times — the time between the plane’s arrival and subsequent departure — with the checked-baggage fees. Are the cost savings from paying fewer baggage handlers (not to mention the fees collected) exceeding the cost of delays?
Regardless: What’s YOUR sense of the boarding process on airlines with checked-luggage fees? Have you noticed a difference in speed since the fees are were put in place? Have flights been delayed because of luggage? Vote, and hit the comments.
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August 8th, 2008 at 7:04 am
I flew American in June and noticed this very thing. My flight to Denver occurred just before the luggage fee and seemed to go normally. But the flight home took place just after the luggage fee took effect, and it was madness. Boarding took forever because folks couldn’t find space for their bags in the overheads. (And, similarly, deplaning seemed to take longer as well.)
With American, the order in which you board the plane is determined by where you sit. So I’d imagine that the new baggage fee in turn means that seats near the front of the plane, in that first or second boarding group, become even more prized. Something *else* the airlines can charge for, like aisle or window seats. :p
August 8th, 2008 at 8:35 am
Being an exclusive Delta or Alaska Air flyer I can’t really vote, since things seem just like normal on my flights, but if this truly works out to be the case then it would seem to be another marketing point for those airlines that don’t charge for the first bag.
As an aside, I don’t think the $50 second bag fee at Delta is all that bad. Even when my wife and I went to Hawai’i for a week during the blizzard season in Denver we still managed quite nicely with one checked bag each. I think this extra charge will help reduce the amount of extra packing the leisure traveler does.
August 8th, 2008 at 9:47 am
I think the extra bag fees will help reduce the amount of travelling that the leisure traveller does.
August 8th, 2008 at 11:52 am
I have yet to fly under the new system, but I have a Delta flight to Maui coming up in a few weeks. I anticipate no problems as Delta offers the first bag free.
I have already scheduled my Thanksgiving flights (LAX-CMH one-stops, $200, cheap!) on United. If those flights actually go off as scheduled, I expect them to be a madhouse.
With fewer flights, turn-around times may not be as important.
August 8th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Here’s the European Union’s answer to airline shenanigens: The Air Passenger Rights policies. Read it. ‘Tis a thing o’ beauty:
http://www.brusselsairport.be/en/102547/254584/pax_rights_en
And where is oversight of US airlines? Who’s looking out for us, the consumers? Yawn, oh, yeah, Congress. Right. I’m voting for Nader.
August 9th, 2008 at 5:26 am
Thanks Skippygrrl – that was an incredible breath of fresh air to read. I am going to print that out, make copies and litter US airports with it. I will go from seat to seat and put a copy in each Inflight magazine. I will stand on the airplane itself and yell with glee – European flyers have rights!!!
ps- I lost a little part of my soul when airlines started went from calling us travelers to customers.
August 12th, 2008 at 7:31 am
I usually fly jetblue and have not noticed the delay too much. I typically check in online and do not check any bags.
I just joined a travel site that is in private beta but anyone can join. it is called http://www.BARAAZA.com Check it out if you really like to travel.
Melissa
January 9th, 2009 at 9:48 am
Well, I guess all of us who were happy that Delta didn’t charge for the first bag are eating our words now that Delta is charging $15 for the first bag. This is outrageous! How can this be cost effective, when they will lost customers and have more problems with overloaded carry-on bins?