Bag Fees Were the Most Successful Airline Business Model Change of the Past Decade
Photo Credit: A Southwest Airlines customer checks a bag in Los Angeles. Southwest is the only larger U.S. airline that allows passengers to check two bags for free. Southwest Airlines
Skift Take
In the past decade, airlines have successfully convinced flyers to pay for everything from seat assignments to checking bags. But some of their most loyal customers are fuming.
Cookbook author and television personality Nathalie Dupree longs for the days when she could simply walk to an airport counter, purchase a plane ticket, and get on a jet.
Now, she said, “It might take me half a day to get it booked.”
Dupree, who lives in Charleston, South Carolina, must wade through a list of decisions, including whether to choose one airline for a cheap ticket, but no frequent flyer miles, or another, costlier carrier that gives her points.
She has to pick which credit card to use, whether it’s the one issued by an airline that gives her free checked baggage, or another that means she'll pay to check luggage.
“It’s quite a come down from my first European trip when I arrived late to the airport and they bumped me up to first class,” Dupree said. “In short, flying is no fun anymore.”
Dupree’s experience is repeated millions of times per year by airline passengers maneuvering through the forest of fees and other features that the carrier
