Prediction: airlines will begin charging for carry-on luggage soon

by Ron Goltsch on June 23, 2008

Now that the airlines have hiked their checked bag fees — and have gotten away with it — prepare to pay for carry-on baggage.

That’s right. Carry-on baggage.

Up to now, most airlines’ policies allowed passengers to bring one certain size carry-on, plus one “personal item” like a purse or a laptop.

And that second personal item has been very poorly policed.

Face it, we’ve all seen a person carrying a normal carry-on plus an oversize personal item. (To be fair, my laptop backpack is almost the size of my 19-inch roll-aboard. Unfortunately, I need most every item in there to perform my job, and the airline won’t guarantee it will arrive safe — or at all.)

Airlines already are charging for the first and second bags of checked luggage. That means people will be carrying more of their luggage on board.

With delays inevitable with all the people fighting for overhead space, the airlines will be forced to start charging a carry-on fee for anything larger than a paperback novel. While the new fees have just been implemented, many are predicting chaos both during boarding and at the security lines.

Mark my words, this new fee will be spun as a way to speed up boarding time. The airlines will claim they are doing this to ensure on-time departures.

Actually, I’m surprised they didn’t start charging for carry-on bags first before they started charging for checked luggage.

Instituting the first baggage fee was the hardest part. As with all uproars, they eventually die down.

Once this checked luggage fee brouhaha is over, we will see one airline broach the subject of carry-on fees. The press and general public will not pay as close attention because of luggage-fee fatigue.

And as with all things related to fees, once one airline does it, the rest will follow.

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  • http://notravelmlms.blogspot.com John F

    DL is already equipping it’s fleet with credit card readers. SO this is logical for sure. I wonder how and when the transaction takes place? Will the credit card readers have the PNR info (including CC info) and just bill it to you when the FA notices a second bag?

  • Ellen

    Actually, I would pay a fee for a carryon if I were guaranteed a space above my seat for my stuff.

  • Ron Goltsch

    Ellen,
    Careful what you wish for….you just might get it. Truth be told, I agree with you. I am an elite traveler on most every flight I take, so I take advantage of priority boarding simply so I can get my bag in the overhead with little fuss. I would love to be one of the last people on board before the flight takes off. It would give me time to unwind in the airport, knowing I have space to put my bag in the overhead.

    Ron

  • Alice Engelman

    I’m all for charging for carry-on luggage. I don’t travel that much (4-6 pleasure trips/year) but I’m horrified at the amount and size of items the airlines let people carry on. Besides taking up space which other passengers who operate w/i the rules should have, I dread someone opening the overhead and stuff falling out …on me!

    If airlines do move ahead w/this, I certainly hope they manage the situation well before the security lines or the boarding lines. I also hope they have staff on hand to handle the passenger who loses his/her temper over this.

  • KG2V

    I made 4 flights this week, and each time, there was no problem putting stuff overhead – lots of room. ONE person had an overstuffed carry on, that was hard to fit, but it went.

    It might be that there were 4 of us flying, and only 2 carry ons, plus my wife’s (small) purse

  • Brian

    I am against the airlines charging for carry-ons. I think if they want to charge for baggage, it must be either the checked or carry ons but not both. It is an unfair practice. If the major airlines did this, I would take my business to Southwest because they would never do something like this. Even today, the first two bags are free, non-alcoholic drinks are free, snacks are free, and carry ons are free. I don’t see Continental doing this either since it would go against their motto: Work Hard, Fly Right.

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  • Ron

    Looks like I was correct, if just a little early in my prediction. LOL

  • http://devueltaenlaindia.bitacoras.com LUCIA

    Hello Ron
    I hope you are still working on this blog.

    I got into your blog searching in google for a site about
    “international travellers rights” or something like this,
    because i dont know if there exist already something like that!

    How can we all the international travellers join together to demand and fight the superbusiness and abuse the airlines are making with us?

    they will charge the food extra…
    they charge the seat you will choose, extra…
    they charge the extra luggage…
    what will they charge after???

    (actually, when we purchase a ticket online, there is in a lot of low cost airlines, the option “travelling assurance” which means that by EXTRA CHARGE, the company compromises to pay if your luggage is lost or damaged… should this not be already a legal risponsability of the airline in the moment we purchase a ticket? why shall we pay extra for this legal obligation of the carrier?
    This means “if you dont want your luggage to get lost or damaged, you must pay an extra fee… if you dont, we dont have any risponsability about your belongings”!
    Who can regulate this abuse internationally? nobody?

    Why are only US and Canada the only two countries allowed to take two luggage pieces in economic class,
    and if you are travelling to any other country in economy class, we can only take for free one 20 kgs luggage piece?
    20 kgs is nothing>
    why are only this two countries having this privilege?

    people like me who spend months outside our own country and then come back, we will spend millions on “excess luggage”, or posting our belongings…

    I think the only way to fight these is to make a global strike of “no travelling at all” until the airlines stop this abuse to the passengers.
    but how can we join together to demand this?

    Next they will want us to fly only with what the are wearing on,
    and pay for any extra gram we will carry

    i appreciate if you can give some information about some initiative, institution, ong or any international asociation which is fighting and working on this cause for the benefit of all travellers.
    This is as much as a “human rights” of travellers cause!

    thank you so much,
    a desperate traveller in Bangkok, Thailand,

  • dudeofdudez

    Seriously…

    We all live in a little bubble. It’s a situation where a company or two takes a slight liberty, and though people get slightly uncomfortable with it, they learn to ‘adjust’. They whine a bit, then continue on, pay with gritted teeth so they can take their flight. Then they forget about it. Piece by piece new fees are added or a stricter policy here or there, with the same ‘adjustment’ we make. Sure, if everything were added at once, it would be deemed as absurd, and the airline (or insert company name here) would fold. There are people who back up such changes for one particular reason or another, like in a previous post about being the last to get on and still having room for a carry on, but in reality, this is just one liberty they take that really is a gateway to a laundry list of liberties we will see in the next decade from charging to use the lavatory to God knows what. Everybody has their threshold of pain, but if it is inflicted slowly, it doesn’t seem so bad. Personally, a real solution would be to boycott any company that makes a change that is detrimental to the employees or consumers, no matter how small it is. The companies should be in service of us, not the other way around. Imagine what it will be like in ten years. Do you really think it will be any better? Not without some action on our part. Seriously…

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