Recently, the “major” airlines have been queuing up one by one to announce a surcharge for any bag checked on their flights. In most cases, the fee is small, adding $30-$60 to a flight. However, the implications for these fees are huge! To me, this is an issue of incentives, and a humungous oversight on the part of the airlines.
These fees are receiving a ton of media coverage, but for all of the wrong reasons. Outrage at excessive fees tacked on to a subsidized initial price is terrible, but common occurrence, hardly worth noting in news space. Even more surprising is when this space is wasted happily exclaiming that a price is now subsidized, but with higher fee costs (like the new iphone, but that is for another day…).
I view these fees, and my next flight, with fear, but not because of the costs. I am terrified by the incentives. By charging a per bag fee for all checked baggage, and nothing for baggage carried on the flight, I fear that I will spend my summer in the air surrounded by overstuffed bags in every crevice of airline cabins. I am waiting for the day that I am forced to check another laptop because all of the cabin compartments are full, and there is already a diaper bag under my seat deposited by the nightmare family surrounding me.
If I was involved with an airline, and was told that it was time to subsidize by adding fees, I would lobby for a fee per bag for carry-ons, and make traditional checked baggage free. I feel this would make flying a much more pleasurable experience, and more efficient. By providing an incentive for customers not to carry on bags, passengers would experience faster boarding, more space in cabins, and fewer falling bags during and post flight. To make things even better, this fee would probably generate more revenue than a checked baggage fee, as almost everyone carries on at least one bag, even if they also want to check.
In the end, I would prefer flights, like most other goods and services, be offered unsubsidized, so users know the true cost of their transactions before they are locked in. However, if a low initial price and supplemental fee structure is found to be necessary, it is dire that the fees be structured to provide positive incentives in addition to maximizing revenue.
In the meantime, I will be the grumpy one in the air holding onto my sub-laptop like Milton, and paying a fee to check everything I do not absolutely need in a vain attempt to improve the greater good…