Continental charges for 1st bag???? Wow.

[uva185]

I don't get how all of this saves the airlines any money?

It doesn't save them anything but they now get some additional revenue from checked baggage fees.

Whether or not leisure travelers want to admit it air travel is quite cheap in the US and the airlines were in financial trouble before the price of oil shot up over the summer. They need any source of revenue they can get!

 

[Brian Noble]

In addition to the direct revenue, some passengers will be encouraged to bring less than they might have otherwise, and this conserves fuel and/or makes room for more freight (which brings with it even more revenue.)

 

[dburg30]

This always makes me laugh. Here in Columbus we had an airline startup at about the worst time possible when fuel skyrocketed, skybus, I'm sure some of you remember it (now defunct ). They had $10 seats and such on their flights, open seating, BUT they charged for all checked bags (think it was $5 each for 2 or something) people were saying no one would put up with paying for checked bags!!! Well fast forward to not very long at all after skybus went belly up at how many airlines are charging, and much more then what they were.

We now return you to your scheduled thread

 

[dburg30]

In addition to the direct revenue, some passengers will be encouraged to bring less than they might have otherwise, and this conserves fuel and/or makes room for more freight (which brings with it even more revenue.)

Correct, it may only save a few gallons here and there, but the number of gallons an airline goes thru x the number of flights etc, that can all the sudden start adding up to real money

 

[iluvflorida8]

Below is why I only fly Southwest.......

1. No change fee's
2. Two checked bags for free
3. Can cancel flights and re-book for free
4. snacks served for free..

 

[Brian Noble]

I'd consider them too, if only their fares from DTW were competitive on direct flights. Sadly, they rarely are.

 

[jackdis]

Yes, it was $90... we knew it was both ways.

Just some observations...got back last night. The amount of people carrying on luggage was absurd!!!!!!! Definitely due to the first checked bag fee. There was not room in the overheads. People were trying to cram pullmans in the overheads. People were getting annoyed because their carryons were in overheads no where near their seats. I really though they would start gate checking some of the carry ons. It got so bad at one point. One man was slamming other people's things around because "his" overhead was full.

Not a pretty scene......

As for charging for carryons, I think that will be happening in the not so distant future.

We travelled very light, so our two carryons had no problems. Great trip. I'm not going to let this put a damper on it.

 

[suzimar57]

maybe now that Continental is charging for checked luggage, i can finally get DH to agree to carry-on only - if it's going to cost him $30 each way to check luggage (upcoming trip to Vegas) he'll be more receptive to schlepping a carry-on and making do with less changes of clothes for a few nights....

this checked fee thing can actually work in my favor, since i'm a big "light packer" and can manage fine with less, DH has always been the problem...