Spirit Airlines actually might be onto something with this carry-on charge

by Janice Hough on April 7, 2010


Many travelers are up in arms about Spirit Airlines’ new carry-on charge. Curiously enough, the charge doesn’t start for travel until after August 1, so maybe the carrier is giving themselves some leeway to change their mind.

There may be a way to make this carry-on charge good news rather than another shock to the airline passenger’s system.

Here’s the new rules: The carry-on charge, $30, would be for any carry-on item larger than 16 x 14 x 12 inches. Their frequent flier mileage program members would only pay $20 and those who checked in at the gate would pay $45. A second carry-on of any size costs the same. (There are $5 discounts for paying online.)

Some personal items, coats, food, cameras, diaper bags, car seats, umbrellas, strollers and reading material will be excluded. Though it would be interesting to know what Spirit’s policy will be on items purchased from airport gift shops. Will they charge for that stuffed Mickey Mouse from the Disney store in Orlando, or duty free liquor from the Caribbean.

While I personally prefer to carry on my bags, I actually think the airline could be on to something with a couple tweaks.

First, airlines have it backwards. They should charge for carry-on luggage and allow one free checked bag. This would speed up the boarding process amazingly. How often does boarding come to a complete stop while someone tries to jam a bag overhead, or stops to get a few things out of their bags, or acts surprised that their own bag is too heavy to lift.

Charging for the first large carry-on instead of the first checked bag would also mean that business travelers, who tend to be in more of a hurry, would pay for the convenience (and the knowledge that there would actually be space overhead). Leisure travelers might not mind waiting for their luggage as much.

Second, airlines should have a checked baggage guarantee. If the bag isn’t there 30 minutes after landing, they get a discount voucher and/or a refund of any fees paid. If prompt luggage delivery to passengers was more consistent, more people wouldn’t mind checking bags.

In fact, personally, even with a short trip, sometimes it’s a relief not to hassle with the 3 1/2 ounce rule, to be able to pack a bottom of wine and not to have to rush on board to find overhead space.

And every time I check a bag and it’s there within 20 minutes or so I think “I should do this more often.” But then there’s the 45 minute plus wait and I think “never again.”

If major airlines could do both things -allow a checked bag for free, and make a commitment to deliver that bag in a reasonable about of time, then the whole flying experience would be more pleasant. And I believe the irritation passengers might feel about paying for a carry-on would be greatly mitigated by avoidng a boarding process that so often becomes a stampede into gridlock.

Readers, what do you think?

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Tagged as: baggage fees, boarding process, carry-on fees, spirit airlines

  • Frank

    Second, airlines should have a checked baggage guarantee. If the bag isn’t there 30 minutes after landing, they get a discount voucher and/or a refund of any fees paid. If prompt luggage delivery to passengers was more consistent, more people wouldn’t mind checking bags.
    ==================================================

    Wont work. Every Airport is different. Obviously, some larger then others. Secondly, this 30 minute Rule was applied to the Pizza industry. Unfortunately, Driving accidents happened, trying to make that guarantee. And, that’s NOT safe in an industry that is all about safety.

  • Michelle

    How are they going to enforce this? If my free carry-on is to go under the seat in front of me, what happens when I throw it in a bin anyway? Will paid for carry-on bags be tagged or something?

  • MVFlyer

    I see the carry-on scheme as a money-grab, plain (or plane???) and simple. While I generally disagree with checked bag charges, at least it does take labor to load and unload, at some cost to the airline. What paid labor does it take for a carry-on? And for the fuel to fly it–don’t try to tell me it takes $25 of fuel to fly a 15 lb bag.

    While I agree that if bags aren’t delivered in x time, there should be a refund, it’ll never happen–take too much labor to process the claims (which of course the airline can always say “it wasn’t our fault”). However, I do think that if bags are mishandled and don’t arrive on the flight, there should be a refund–something that isn’t happening now–which tells me that you’re not paying for a value-added service, rather a necessary evil that the airlines must perform.

  • MVFlyer

    @Michelle–I know how they can enforce it–put a credit card swipe on the overhead bin, just like bag lockers in the airports. And then they can charge an extra $5 ‘convenience fee’ for paying with a credit card, even though there’s no way to pay cash.

    (I hope I’m not giving them ideas on how to be diabolical….)

  • laura townsend elion

    I agree Janice – I’d much rather have free checked luggage and have the airline charge for carry-on.

    I hate having to schlepp bags on the plane, yet feel compelled to do it to save money when traveling with my family (for business, on my own, I would suck up one fee). And yet, it’s a chaotic nightmare with everyone trying to jam as much stuff as they can on the plane to avoid charges. People crawl over one another to open and shut bins, hog space in bins, or take over bins not above their seat, and the worst -block the aisles when folks, esp. those with close connections, are trying to de-plane.

    Since airlines are often obsessed with ‘on-time’ stats, doing the reverse of what they’re doing woudl go a long way toward helping improve those. The only down side to that is I often travel with valuables – sentimental or otherwise – that I don’t trust to checked baggage (although I could probably fit those under a seat). No one ever said life was perfect.

  • Hapgood

    If the airlines could handle checked baggage reliably– not necessarily “guaranteed,” but reliable enough so passengers could have confidence that it would arrive intact and timely– I’m sure most passengers would much rather let the airline’s baggage handlers do the heavy lifting than schlep elephantine carry-ons.

    Unfortunately, airline executives are uninterested in providing reliable baggage handling. It would cost money to have the proper infrastructure and sufficient staffing to make it work reliably. They would much rather cut those costs, possibly making it less reliable… AND charge a fee for the privilege of playing “baggage roulette.” So any passenger who becomes a “bin hog” out of the inexcusably selfish desire to have their belongings arrive intact when they arrive has little choice but to carry it on themselves, often to the detriment of themselves, their fellow passengers, and hard-working flight attendants.

    Now the airline executives have figured out that they can have it all. They already charge fees for their questionably reliable checked baggage service. So why not “monetize” the alternative of carrying on bags? That way, even savvy travelers who would otherwise deprive airlines of revenue by not checking bags get a chance to contribute ancillary revenue. Although the PR flaks dress up the fees as “offering choice,” the real message is that NOBODY should be allowed to escape airline fees! Maybe the carry-on fee should be greater than the fee for checked bags, to reflect the high-reliability “premium” service.

    Airline executives apparently believe the way to survival and prosperity is by showing their paying customers as much contempt as they can manage. They’re well aware that those customers are there because they have no other transportation options, so you might as well take as much advantage of that as possible.

    I’m waiting to see which airline will be the first to charge a fee for recovering lost bags. After all, that’s an expense to the airline that should not be borne by shareholders. Maybe they can spin it as “giving passengers a new choice.” They can pay the fee and perhaps eventually get their bag back. Or they can choose to avoid the fee by abandoning their bag, allowing the airline to get whatever revenue they can from auctioning it off when they find it. It’s a win-win situation (for the airline), and proves that if you’re going to kick someone it’s more fun (and lucrative) to do it when they’re down.

    Regardless, the airline executives know that after the initial grumbling, any new fee quickly becomes the “new normal” that passengers learn to accept because they have no choice. Once that happens, they’re ready to impose the next new fee.

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  • ginny

    As much as I hate to say this, I think it’s time that the government steps in to regulate some aspects of flying. Especially passenger’s rights. Each ticket should allow for 1 checked bag. Who goes on vacation without luggage, especially those on a tour or on a cruise, where a carryon just won’t fit the bill.

  • Susan

    Agree 100%, I’ve often suggested that the airlines have it backwards. But Spirit blew it by not allowing checked bags free. To me the idea is to get all that crap out of the cabin and have boarding and deplaning take half the time. Spirit just wants more money.

    Imagine how much quicker the TSA line would be too if huge suitcases didn’t have to be examined. Just imagine……….

  • http://www.globepharm.org Michael Anisfeld

    The winners in all this will be FedEx and UPS as more of us send our vacation baggage a few days prior. Of course, this may be what the airlines have intended all along – only fly the passenger, and no baggage either in the hold or on the plane. Thus no need for baggage handlers (salary savings), and major savings in fuel due to lighter aircraft and aircraft turn-around time. Or am I being too cynical? (Please do not get me started about how the now freed up space in the baggage hold can be retrofitted with seats to carry even more passengers!)

  • http://www.altourleisure.com Deborah H.

    Janice,
    I agree completely with this statement you made. I have been preaching this for years!
    ” They should charge for carry-on luggage and allow one free checked bag. This would speed up the boarding process amazingly. How often does boarding come to a complete stop while someone tries to jam a bag overhead, or stops to get a few things out of their bags, or acts surprised that their own bag is too heavy to lift.”
    SO TRUE!

  • Dan

    Passengers need to tell the airlines who is in control. It must be the passengers, not the airline. The only way to do this is to boycott any airline that charges a fee you don’t agree with. If enough people avoid flying Spirit, for example, then it is likely Spirit will change its behavior. If you don’t want to pay for bags, fly Southwest and tell the others to pound salt. If enough people actually do this, we can influence airline policies and eliminate the unwanted fees. I would much rather pay a higher ticket price, with everything included and not have the hassle of the dreaded fees. If people can’t find an airline that will work with them, then they should consider driving, train or bus until the airline industry learns to take proper care of its customers. Yes, passengers are customers, and in the end, the customer rules.

  • DaveS

    It is nothing but a way to advertise a phony low price, while leaving the traveler no way to avoid paying extra “fees”. A person can often get along without a large bag. But very few can get along without either a large or small bag. It’s just a way to lie about fares in their advertising.

  • MeanMeosh

    Janice, I would agree with you, except there’s a serious problem with the reliability of checked baggage service on most major airlines. Even when bags were free, I was hesitant to check any bags because of the very real risk that they would be lost, and leave me holding the bag (literally) at my destination. Unless the airlines give me a reasonable guarantee that they will either a) get my bag to me on time, or b) be willing to pay for ALL out of pocket expenses when they lose it, without any of these bogus “Montreal Convention” and “checked baggage liability limitations”, the idea of being forced to either check all bags or pay for a carryon is a nonstarter with me. Guess I’ll just be driving or flying Southwest when the legacy carriers inevitably take Spirit’s lead and start levying the carryon fee.

    And for the record, I’m not one of the guilty ones that tries to push the limits with carryons – strictly regulation size for me.

  • http://www.tripso.com/author/ned/ Ned Levi

    Great article. You’ve looked at the problem and turned it inside out to really look at it. Few have done so.

    I’d like you to think about another problem with checked luggage, which I don’t think has been considered.

    I take a personal item and a carry-on (they meet size standards). Between them I carry my laptop, camera gear, a few other valuables, and my medications. The medications can’t afford to be lost, and the other gear is outside the liability responsibility as set by the airlines themselves. If I pack my gear, no matter how carefully, and it’s lost, stolen or damaged the airlines won’t reimburse me for my loss. Moreover, even if they would accept liability, the limit of liability they have is far too low to cover the gear.

    What many people forget is that those cameras, lenses, and other gear they take to make keepsakes to take home from their vacation won’t be insured by the airlines if in their checked luggage. The same is true of anything breakable, or “valuable.” The airlines will say tough luck, if you try to put in a claim.

    As it is the liability limits of the airlines are far too low anyway, even if they cover nothing valuable.

    Even beyond the problem of liability, I’d add a third requirement to your list, full disclosure of any possible fees, before you purchase a ticket within the ticket purchasing procedure. In fact, it should be at the time of the original price quote. I went right through Spirit’s online ticket purchasing, and there is no mention of any baggage fees whatsoever. If you didn’t know there were other possible fees you’d think the price quoted for the ticket would be the whole price. It isn’t. Personally, I consider that lying.

  • Janice Hough

    Thanks Ned, and you make some great points. Realistically it may never be practical to check things like jewellry or camera equipment, but the liability limits are ridiculously low. I’ve had clients not be able to recover anywhere near the cost of their (admittedly expensive) clothes.

    Of course, the way the airlines are going, how long until they offer “optional” baggage insurance with their tickets?

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