My goodness, it seems every time we take a breath, another airline finds some other way to make a buck off of their guests. Even though you might have purchased your tickets several months ago, just keep your wallet out when you arrive at the airport. . .you’re not through paying!!
Frontier is the latest to announce that they are intending to charge for carry-on bags, joining Spirit Airlines and Allegiant in their quest to continue the nickel and dime approach to making a little more money. The date they intend to begin hasn’t been announced, but speculation is that it will be some time this summer. They will charge $25-$100 each way, I guess, depending on the weight.
These carriers are not the major carriers, but you can bet that the majors are keeping an eye on the earnings of these so-called low-ball carriers from this latest move.
Tom Parsons from Best Fares calculated that the airlines are just trying to cover their costs, because when you bring bags on the airplane, you are adding weight. His analysis is using the example of a major airline that flies Boeing 737s. If you are on a 1000 mile trip, and if 100 passengers bring on a roller bag that weighs 20 pounds, that would be an extra 2000 pounds. It would cost the airlines approximately 300 gallons of fuel for 2,000 pounds of carry-on weight. With the cost of jet fuel at $3.75 a gallon it would cost approximately $975 more in fuel costs to carry those 100 bags. That’s just about $10 for the cost of the bag, but if they charge $25 for the carry-on bag, then I guess the extra $15 is obviously their “service charge”.
That’s not all, Allegiant went from $35 to $50 for carry-on bags, so you can bet they are making a lot of extra monies for no more work. . .and if they can negotiate the fuel cost down to $3.25-$3.50, they can really make out like a bandit.
All of this is making the guests of the airlines and some travel organizations mad enough to lobby for a “Passenger Bill Of Rights”. The cruise lines are also getting into the act with a proposal for a “Cruise Passenger Bill Of Rights”. It will be interesting what the Congress of the United States has to say about the way passengers are being treated. On the other hand, I read in a report today that President Obama is considering putting some more government taxes to be collected by the airlines. None of this talk helps the travel business, I can tell you that. In my opinion, considering all the money that is spent on travel in the United States, the Congress should be looking for ways to reduce the tax on our traveling citizens.
No matter what the government and airlines do, the experienced and professional travel agents at The Travel Factory are always doing their best to help our friends manufacture the vacation of their dreams, and we try to do it within the confines of their pocketbook. Thanks for calling on us for service at 697-1421 or toll-free 800-760-4040.