The truth is simple. Jet fuel went up, economy went down, travel suffered terribly, less flights (bankrupt airlines, less routes, etc) created less supply for demand and this became a new revenue stream. Plain and simple. Look at the other things that are gone. 1) Meals on 2 hour flight. 2) Snacks on less than 2 hour flights. 3) Drinks on less than 1 hour flights (sometimes). 4) Pillow and blanket etc. Like I said, pretty simple, sales went down, so a new group of Revenue Streams came into play. If it was entirely Jet fuel based than flights that were shorter would always cost less than longer ones, and frequent fliers would not get bag fees waived, etc. It is ALL about supply and demand. I like the comment about one or two tried and the sky didn’t fall so the others followed suit. Imagine if the first one who tried went immediately bankrupt over it, the others would have NEVER followed suit.

The unfair part is how they get you at the airport for fees. ESPECIALLY infrequent travelers.

LONG (but good) STORY HERE!!!

I was at Ohare airport at a Delta Counter and a Family of 5 (Two parents and three kids- all fare paying age) and they were in shock and awe. They were being told there bag fees would be an additional $250 EACH WAY ($500 BUCKS ROUNDTRIP!!) They each had two bags (plus a couple, small carryon- purse/bag for kids types). The mom started crying, the dad was ANGRY, the counter people oscillated between indifferent to sort of amused. The father started shuffling through his wallet, obviously looking for what card could possibly have that much open. I stepped forward and said to him, well I wouldn’t check a bag one. Just take them all plain side, and check them at the gate. He looked suprised and turned to ask the counter person if he could and before she could answer, i stopped him and said ” Don’t ask them, what do you think they will say?” I told him that I travel all the time and the bags I see get checked plane side are no larger than his. The counter person and her boss stepped out and started to become confrontational with me, and actually tried to move one the families bags onto the scale. Finally, the father became very frustrated again, and pulled his bag back and asked, “can i check these bags plane side.” The manager tried to firmly sidestep the question with “well we don’t recommend or that is not policy blah blah.” The father looked back at me and I blatantly said “He is not answering you because YES, you can check them plane side.” The manager called over a security person to address me, who simply imposed himself between me and the family and i moved back to my spot behind the red line. The mother tried to argue and said “Our total flights, round-trip were less than $1,000 but you are telling us, just now, that our flight will be double than due to two bags of normal size per person.” Cold and calmly, the manager said, “well mam’ Yes. you have to understand that the airlines have certain financial..” and she interupted them there and turned to her husband, “No way we’re paying double, let’s listen to this guy (me) and head to the gate.” So they turned around and left. I got the dirtiest stares while checking in (usually use kiosks but mine wouldnt work for some reason) as I was leaving the manager stated that I really should not but into other peoples business. I replied that the airlines and himself and his staff should take such delight in screwing over their customers and walked away.

Ironically, the family was travelling to the same destination as I, Chicago to New York. So i saw them at check in. We chatted and laughed a bit, they suggested some great restaraunts while in town (They were originally from the same town of Binghamton that I was visiting. They were heading into the jetbridge and even the ticket taker was peturbed by their number of bags stating “that their IS a check in service before security. The mother replied bit for 1,000 bucks their ain’t. Then the ticket taker complained that the children had too many bags (these people just don’t give up). So i picked up 3 bags and grabbed tags and headed on the plane with them.

Shared the story because it is a good one and it just exemplifies the GREED of the industry and too bad Southwest doesn’t fly more places because i would use them more.

@Laura: Bodega is correct about the differences between “nonstop”, “direct”, and “connecting” flights. The legacy carriers route 90% or so of their flights through their hubs, and many of the planes on those flights go from Point A to the hub and back to Point A. Hub-spoke flights are almost always connecting, not direct, flights.

Your experience may be different if you’re traveling from one of, day, the top 20 or so cities in the country to another. There are quite a few nonstop flights from New York to Los Angeles or San Francisco, for instance; there are quite a few (in season) from northeast cities to Florida. But if you’re going from a city like, say, Buffalo or Austin or Baton Rouge or Cheyenne to, well, anywhere, a legacy carrier will mean a connecting flight and a change of planes. Flights from second-tier and lower cities are almost 100% routed to hubs.

Southwest uses a modified hub/point-to-point system, where almost every SWA city serves as a micro-hub, many serve as mini-hubs, and a few serve almost as regular hubs. From New Orleans, for instance, Southwest might offer non-stops to Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, Chicago, Nashville, and DC. But those planes would then continue on, respectively, to say Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Albany, Pittsburgh, and Manchester. So a New Orleans passenger could get a direct (but not non-stop) flight to Pittsburgh with no change of plane. Carrying through, that passenger might then disembark in Pittsburgh, change planes, and continue on to Hartford; his flight would then be a connecting one. Variations of this model are used by several of the lower-cost carriers, although some use the hub-spoke system.

Since the massive drop in air travel the airlines have dropped capacity and raaised fees. Therefore further dropping of trravel will merely force them to find even more fees!

Connecting flights usually involve different planes. Occassionally, you can find an itinerary that will stop and show a change of plane to the same plane you flew out on. This is sometimes found international to domestic flights with US carriers. It is best when taking connecting flights to use the same carrier, but that isn’t always possible or necessary but you would want to be sure of interline agreements. You can not connect from one carrier to some others, such as UA to WN. These would be issued as two separate itineraries and if you check luggage, you have to pickup your bags with United and then checkin with WN. WN does not interline with any carrier.

A direct flight in not a nonstop flight. A direct flight is one that stops in route with no change of plane. Southwest is one carrier to utilize this in many of their routings.

A big misunderstanding for passengers is that their luggage doesn’t always travel on the same fight as they do. And of course we all know that luggage sometimes takes the ’scenic’ route with a stop over for a day or week or more in a destination not on your itineary :)

@Scott
You are right in that, in order to be brief, I wasn’t clear. Most “connecting’ flights do not involve a change in planes (at least when you are using the same carrier and not some piecemeal itinerary) – very few flights these days (at least in my experience) involve 2 different planes. Even when a change in planes is required, the bags are often ‘checked through’ to your destination, meaning that in some cases, they don’t fly on the same plane you do, but on a direct flight.

The last time I booked a flight with segments where a change in planes was supposedly required (because it was unavoidable to make my destination in time), we got to airport prepared for some marathon and then were told we were not changing planes. (BTW – had I known this, I would have packed differently – more checked, less carry-on). I never figured out if there was a last minute accomodation by the airline, or if the initial information had been wrong.

You may have the education, but I’m trying to figure out how you came to the conclusion that “connecting flights do not involve additional luggage contact by personnel.” How will the bags get unloaded from the first aircraft, get sorted, get loaded onto carts, get transported to the other aircraft and then get loaded onto that second aircraft, all without any contact by personnel?

“Just say no” is about the only thing we can do about the degradation of the air travel “experience.” What I’d like to see happen is for the “elite business travelers” to use teleconferencing instead of travel, and for leisure travelers to try exploring the treasures they’ve overlooked in their own home towns back in the days when air travel was convenient and fun. Do this for a while. Just long enough to finally push the airlines over the cliff, toward which they’ve been heading for some time.

The current crop of CEOs will cash in their bankruptcy-proof pension entitlements and then go on to find new industries to ruin, undoubtedly for higher pay than they’re now “earning.” And new CEOs who are hopefully smarter and more competent will rebuild a new and better airline industry from the ruins.

The only people who will really suffer are the employees of the current airlines, who didn’t cause the problems but will have to bear the full costs of the transition. But that’s the way things always work in deregulated free-market capitalism. And if they survive the lengthy layoff, they may end up with better and more satisfying jobs in a new airline industry that values employees (and customers) as essential assets rather than as liabilities “outside the value stream,” to be cut at every opportunity.

I don’t know anything else we can do about airlines that will only get worse.

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It would be nicer if the airlines quit nickel and diming their passenger (if it were only a nickel or a dime!).

I remember when the airlines use to charge more for nonstop flights than for an itinerary that required a connection. Redeyes use to be less in cost, too.

A report yesterday said that people are saying they are not traveling by air this Thanksgiving due to the extra fees. They are thumbing their noses at the airlines and I hope it continues!