Beginning July 1, Delta will charge $50 for a second checked bag on all its international flights. It is the first amongst U.S. based carriers. The airline expects to earn $100 million annually from this fee.
Can fees for the all checked luggage on international flights be far behind?
Another reason to carry on.
I sighed when I saw this. Surprised it didn't happen sooner. I don't like the nickle and diming fees, although I do agree with the prior poster who said it's nice that my fare isn't covering someone else's luggage (I travel carry-on only most of the time.)
I don't like it, but like $4-a-gallon gas, I consider it to be the way things are, and it won't really affect my travel habits. I'll grumble, but I'll pay the fee to bring back all that tasty limoncello and olive oil.
Frank, I was reading about that in the Atlanta paper this morning. They said it was due to the global recession. What are the odds they will eliminate this charge when the economy picks up? Slim to none.
If other carries follow Delta with this levy then it will probably stay regardless of how well the economy recovers. Hopefully they won't hit us who take carry on only.
They also mentioned another new charge that could be coming which is a fee for advanced seat assignments for certain exit row, aisle and window seats. Northwest already charges $5 to $75 for its coach choice preferred seat assignments.
It will be interesting to see if other airlines follow Delta's lead, or should I say.... when they follow Delta's lead. But, hey it is only money. I'll just go pick some off my tree in the back yard.
If they expect to make $100 million from "second" bags on international flights, just think how much they can make from first bags.
As far as carry-on go, they can't charge for all of them. They'd then be saying if you have any luggage you have to pay. However, I can see them limiting their carry-on allowance to where wheeled bags wouldn't be allowed and they could collect fees on those bags. Northwest recently did that on a flight. After first class boarded, they made an announcement saying anyone with non-wheeled carry-on can now board. I'm not sure if they gate checked or made the pax put their carry-on in regular baggage.
However, if they did this, and their business pax complained, the airline might change their mind.
Blame the recession! Might as well blame it on international terrorism, or global warming, maybe the wars in Africa. How about the phases of the moon?
Real reason to blame the recession is fewer people are flying, therefore revenues and profits are down. So they want to raise fares, but the market is very competitive, so they can't make it obvious. So they have to come up with devious ways raise prices. Hidden fees! That's why airline executives make the big bucks.
Does anyone really believe that it costs the airline anywhere near $50 to check an extra bag.
A true free market requires transparency. Make the airlines show the real price of flying with them.
Perhaps the fares should have to show the total price, after ALL billable add-ons. Make it illegal for them to get more from you than the price they advertised. So the price they show would have to include all possible extra checked bag charges, purchased drinks and meals, etc. Then in very small letters, gray on a white background, they could say that IF you don't avail yourself of all the extras, your price could be less.
Or perhaps it should be required that all profits have to come from the base ticket price, that any charges above the base price can only be for the variable cost of providing the service.
Is there something wrong with being honest?
$100 million annually works out to about 5,500 passengers carrying a second bag daily.
Is this fee for all passengers. I can't believe they would do this for first and business class.
That being said, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they limited the size of carry on baggage, say 10X14X9. That would be one way to put a stop to carry on luggage.
Quite honestly the airlines could really careless what we think. They are going to do whatever they can to make a buck. At least they are coming out and telling you, instead of increasing their fars and then everyone pays regardless of the number of bags you check or carry on.
There is a secondary advantage to all these fees, from the airlines' point of view I mean. They make a straight apples-to-apples comparison of travel costs difficult to impossible.
(Just imagine a service like Kayak trying to account for every little thing that any airline might charge for, when not just the fees but the things the fees are for vary from airline to Arline and by class of service.)
This makes air travel less transparent and competitive, so airlines can generally charge more.
Right on (almost), Adam.
But it's not the secondary advantage, it's the primary advantage. Some airlines don't want you to be able to compare apples-to-apples. Obviously, Delta, by going to this subterfuge, is tacitly admitting that they cannot compete with other airlines honestly. They can only hope to be successful by using hidden fees to mask the fact that they are less efficient.
I can't believe that anyone can be so gullible as to believe that airlines are doing this so that "my fare isn't covering someone else's luggage". If that were the case, they would have done that years ago. How come it only happened when they wanted to hide fare increases. When was the last time that airlines looked out for anyone elses interests? They are trying to mislead the public, pure and simple. If the 2nd bag fee was more representative of the actual cost of handling that extra piece of luggage, I would believe they are not trying to make big profits off of the extra fees, but it obviously is not.
I think there is another reason. They are playing a game but it is a different game. This was explain to me by a United airline executive. Their consumer research indicates that the average consumer will not look beyond the first page of the displayed fares when using a flight search engine. Therefore it is absolutely critical for internet bookings for your flights to show up on that first page. Since most pages are displayed from cheapest to the highest the last thing they want to is raise the base fare. And this also explains why taxes and fees seem to be unrelated to the fare. The search engines only rank the airlines by the reported base fare. Airline are increasing fees anyway they can but will not touch that fare base so that they will continued to be ranked low. It is game and we lose.
I give it 30 days before every airline crossing the Atlantic starts to charge for the second bag.
Elite level FF, business class, full fare coach and active military will be exempt from the charge. (Only those buying the cheapest tickets will subject to the fee.)
And, Like it's new partner Northwest is already doing, Delta is thinking of adding a charge to pre-book certain seats on its aircraft--exit row, window and aisle.
I agree with Frank II....the floodgates are now open for American airlines to follow suit. The only good thing....once everyone is doing it, then all it will take will be one to halt it to gain a competitive advantage....then they'll all have to follow suit again!
OK. So HOW many Rick Steves board members travel that heavily?
Seriously it's for the SECOND checked bag. As most of us know that's a lot of luggage to carry!
But it's true, Americans want "CHEAP" when it comes to airfare. In a way this is fairer. If you don't need the second piece you don't pay. And there is a cost assoicated with the second piece of luggage. Fuel, baggage handling, etc....
If in this day and age, you don't look beyond "initial ticket price" then you have only yourself to blame!
(And yes, First Class and top tier Frequent flyers get more luggage for free. So I could take TWO pieces on my trip next month, but I have studied at the Rick Steves school and have only one piece. A Rick Steves carryon size bag!)
I agree that it may prevent all the people with several suitcases that I could actually fit in from travelling that way and just slowing things down. I've only ever checked a second bag once and it was on the way home with non-essentials so that I could travel with basically just my book and my purse and not worry about getting through security with a larger bag...if I had to pay, I could've managed it anyway...
The airlines are under tremendous pressure to keep their list price as low as possible so adding more and more of these "hidden" fees seems inevitable. No different than what the car manufacturers have been doing for years.
On those other hand astute travellers who pack sensibly will continue to benefit from ticket prices that are lower than they were 10 years ago. There are not many other products or services that we can say that about.
Personally I don't have much sympathy for some of the travellers I've seen at airports who seem to have packed for Noah's Ark not a one week vacation. They really should be paying more.
I'm not really worried about the fee for a second checked bag. I'm actually a bit happy about it. We fly standby, and have gotten bumped from flights before because of excessive weight on the plane, even though there were empty seats for us. And, as was said before, how many of us on here check 2 bags? Maybe I'd be surprised by the number that do, but I'm not thinking it's that many.
Well -- it does impact the very few of us who take their bikes with them. Bicycling is the height of traveling light except for the bicycle. Our bikes fit in standard, large, rolling suitcase but we always checked a third bag containing helmets, shoes, etc. Wonder if TSA will object if we wear our helmets through security? We are slowly adjusting to the new world.
USAir just announced that starting in July it will charge an additional $5 per checked bag to those people who check in at the airport instead of online. So far, it's only for domestic flights.
