Airline Baggage Fees Tips for Finding Cheap Airfare Get Our Best Travel Deals and Tips!
Have Baggage Fees Changed Your Flying Experience?
I guess we shouldn't have been surprised. A free checked bag has been such a simple staple of air travel for most of our lifetimes that things had to go sideways when the airlines took it away. And based on a trio of flights I took last week, sideways they have gone, with the law of unintended consequences in full effect.As they have on so many occasions (for some examples, try this and this), the airlines have set up a policy that not only pits passengers against the airline for every last dime and every last inch, but more importantly pits passenger against passenger for the same. This, I contest, compromises not only the comfort but also the safety of all passengers on the plane.
I recently took three flights on two airlines: one that charged a baggage fee and one that didn't. When my flight experiences were compared starkly against each other, it was easy to see the checked baggage policy going wrong -- in so many ways that it would have been laughable if it hadn't been so distressing and unpleasant. Let us count the ways; the differences among the three experiences may make or break your own enjoyment of your next flight.
Flight One (Newark - San Francisco)Airline: Continental
Baggage Fee: $15 for the first checked bag, $25 for the second
Passenger Load: About three-quarters full
With the majority of middle seats open, this partially full cross-country flight went off mostly as you would expect. Several passengers brought very obviously oversized or extra bags onboard without encountering any resistance, and the overhead bins filled up completely -- but in the end there was just about enough space for everyone and their stuff, and it was a more or less "normal" and comfortable flight.
There were some ominous portents, however; boarding instructions from the flight attendants were particularly strident with respect to what was to go overhead and what was to go underfoot. I noticed this but chalked it up to the particular flight attendant's slightly overbearing and a bit meddlesome personal style; at the time it simply seemed more a personality than a policy factor. Notably, upon arrival at our destination, the crowd at the baggage carousel was pretty thin. Most people had carried on as much as they could, avoiding the $15 checked bag fee entirely.
Flight Two (Oakland - San Diego)Airline: Southwest
Baggage Fee: None for the first two checked bags
Passenger Load: Full
My second flight was on Southwest, which charges no fees whatsoever for the first two checked bags. I find that short-haul flights such as this one tend to include more business travelers, who often travel with a single bag that edges right up to the limits of carry-on size allowances. So you might expect that very few people would be checking bags, that oversized bags would be in abundance and that overhead bins would be packed to the fullest. Add to this Southwest's lack of assigned seats, and competition for overhead space could be fierce and merciless.
It wasn't the case, however; the boarding process was relaxed and civil, and there seemed to be plenty of cabin space to go around, despite the fact that the plane was completely full. The difference was immediately noticeable, and Southwest's reputation for a pleasant, orderly boarding and cabin experience was very much in evidence. There were no oversized bags, the only things getting checked at the gate were a few strollers and the baggage carousel at our destination was surrounded by people from the flight picking up their (free) checked baggage.
Flight Three (San Diego - Newark)Airline: Continental
Baggage Fee: $15 for the first checked bag, $25 for the second
Passenger Load: Full
Flight three was a nearly full cross-country redeye on Continental, and this is when all heck broke loose. With only about four or five open seats on the plane, the flight attendants at the gate were almost immediately overwhelmed with a tidal wave of passengers with oversized and extra bags. The attendants were outnumbered and undergunned; while they attempted to establish behavior with urgent announcements at the end of the gangway as we entered the plane, the attendants saw clearly what was coming -- there just wasn't enough room on the plane for all the crap people were trying to bring on.
As we boarded the plane, we were shouted down with instructions: "Large bags must go overhead! Any small bags and totes may not be put in the overhead bins, but must be under the seat in front of you! No totes or small bags in the overhead bins!" But just because they saw it coming didn't mean they were going to be able to deal with it, and it was mere minutes before the flight attendants were spread all over the plane wrestling with bags and arguing with passengers.Meanwhile, back at the entrance to the plane, there was no one to tell people with oversized bags they couldn't bring the bags onboard -- so those people got well onto into the plane before encountering a flight attendant who told them they had to check it. "I don't care about that bag, it's not staying on anyway," a flight attendant barked at an elderly passenger who had advanced 20 rows into the plane with a bag half her size. "Everyone else keep walking! Keep walking!" Then the flight attendant took the massive bag and tried to push it back toward the front of the plane, against the flow of traffic of people coming onboard. At this point the plane was still only half full; this went on for another 20 to 30 minutes.
So What?
So people are avoiding fees by bringing their bags on the plane; who can blame them? I understand the point, but the whole process creates a few big problems almost immediately:
- The people who dragged their oversized bags to the gate and then were required to gate check them anyway did not have to pay the $15! So the incentive to check your bags is not only minimal, but is undermined by the facts on the ground -- you can save money by showing up at the gate with your non-regulation bags, trying to cram them into the cabin and forcing the flight attendants to deal with the problem ... for free.
- On a more selfish note, I paid to check three bags, one for each person in our party, at an expense of $45. When we boarded the plane, we were instructed that two of our small carry-on bags were not permitted to go in the overhead bin -- simply because they were small carry-on items, and not the massive suitcases that many were bringing onboard. As a result, our legroom was severely reduced. Our party paid to check our bags, and as a reward got zero legroom as well because everyone else refused to pay up!
- To take the same point further, if a passenger were traveling with only a single small bag, that passenger would have been entitled to no overhead bin space at all. In the end, the person who should have the most personal space on the plane ends up with the least. This is another classic example of the airlines pitting passenger against passenger by dint of a "policy" -- which we all know is really just a way to mark up prices after a purchase is made.
- Safety goes out the window. Almost every under-seat space in every row of the plane was stuffed with junk -- souvenirs, handbags, laptops, knapsacks -- really anything that was not a full-blown suitcase. If something had happened on that plane, there would have been so much stuff flying and strewn all over the place, with people unable to stand up in their own seat spaces, that there would be really no way to move around safely. The airlines, who force us to suffer any number of indignities in the name of safety, don't really care a whit if it means they have to give up $15 per checked bag.
Go Anyway,
Ed Hewitt
TravelersEd@aol.com
Features Editor
The Independent Traveler