Buried in the recent airline earnings news was the announcement that Alaska Airlines has succumbed to charging $15 for the first checked bag. Starting on July 7th, Alaska Airways will initiate the fees. This is bad news. But their unique-to-the-industry guarantee is good news.
The rhetoric from Alaska Airlines was to be expected as the company instituted the $15 first-checked-bag fee, joining almost every other airline in the country other than Southwest Airlines and JetBlue. Alaska Air’s Chairman and CEO Bill Ayer claimed that passengers actually want these baggage fees.
“We are responding to the continued economic uncertainty by maintaining a healthy level of liquidity, retiming some capital expenditures, controlling costs, reducing capacity and actively pursuing revenue opportunities.”
This response includes the new bag fee. “We’re adapting to a marketplace in which customers increasingly want the lowest fare possible, with the option to pay extra to use other services,” said Ayer.
The only silver lining to this continuing march of increased baggage fees is Alaska Airlines unique baggage guarantee.
“We want to continue matching the lowest fare in the market without being at a revenue disadvantage to our competitors. But we’re also going to provide customers more value for what we’re charging through the bag service guarantee, which no other airline offers.”
That offer guarantees $25 off a future flight or 2,500 Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles if luggage is not in baggage claim within 25 minutes of the aircraft parking at its gate. Alaska also unveiled a drop in its third bag fee from $100 to $50, and exemptions for first class ticket holders, certain frequent flyers, unaccompanied minors, military personnel on active duty and passengers traveling to Mexico City and Guadalajara, Mexico.
There are no baggage fees for internal Alaska flights.
At least Alaska Airlines has given something back to the passengers, in the form of this baggage guarantee, in return for forking out $15 for what was once included in everyone’s price. Their action admits what passengers have been muttering for years. They wouldn’t mind checking luggage if it wasn’t lost so often and it didn’t take an exorbitant time to collect at the destination airports.
Delivering baggage within 25 minutes of parking at the airport gate would be a good start.
