[jdonn]

Yesterday I was reading about an airline (Spirit) possibly charging a fee for bags that are carried onto the plane. Then today I saw this. What has to happen to stop this as it crosses the line to the potentially absurd, someone with irritable bowel syndrome sues an airline?

[RichMor]

A charge for the lav is a horrible idea.

A charge for carry on bags might be all right. The last time I flew - three weeks ago - I spent more time waiting for the bozos to drag their stuff out of the overhead carriers than I spent waiting at the luggage carousel.

RichM

[ArtK78]

It has been a long time since pay toilets disappeared from Men's Rooms.

Looks like they are bringing them back.

[Aberlour10]

Ryanair takes a "Name Change Fee" = 100€, which is more expensive then a new ticket for some european flights ...bizarre..

[gwnn]

well can't the guy with IBS just lock himself in the bathroom? surely he can't be sued for that.

[helene_t]

Check-in luggage with Flybe costs 10 pounds when checking in online and 20 when checking in at the airport. I suppose that is ok.

Extra luggage can be quite expensive, though. 52 kg of luggage costs me in excess of 500 euro for a flight manchester-amsterdam. This is a route that typically costs 60 euro for a single. IOW one passenger is equivalent to 6 kg of luggage.

If the check-in luggage is a cat, it costs around as much as two human passengers. An animal flying "alone" costs as much as 8 humans. I can understand that this is a non-routine thing so therefore relatively expensive, but still. It´s a lot of money. BTW the veterinary checks to get a cat approved for entrance into the UK was 800 euro but that has nothing to do with the airline.

Shogi had to pay GBP 1.50 for a transparent plastic back for his toothpaste etc in Luton airport (I think it was). These obviously sell for about a penny in the supermarket so airport shops might want to sell them also. Or maybe they are not allowed to infringe on the airport security monopoly?

Booking online with British Airways I mistyped my name. I had to pay 40 Euro to have it corrected in the airport, which is the "name change fee". So apparently it would have cost me 100 if I were flying with Ryanair.

CO2 offsetting costs about 2% of the ticket price.

Some airlines have no way of paying without some kind of payment fee. Paying with a credit card can cost as much as 4 pounds.

Jet2 takes a 5 pound fee for online boarding. This is really strange since I would think that online boarding is cheaper than airport booking.

The good news is that except for the payment fee there may be no surcharges if you don't need to check in luggage. They used to list prices exclusive of booking fee, airport tax and fuel tax, so a ticket listed for 1 euro could in fact cost 150 euro.

FWIW I am generally in favor of a la carte pricing, i.e. the principle that you pay for the services you use. It would be neither fair not efficient if the costs of handling check-in luggage were added to the price of the ticket and thereby paid for by the passengers without check-in luggage as well. That said, I think some of the fees are much higher than the costs of providing the services. Airlines attract passengers by announcing low fares, and after having booked you realize that you have to pay a lot of fees on top of the ticket price.

Airlines are not particularly bad in this respects, I think. Generally airline fares are quite transparent.

[hrothgar]

RichMor, on Apr 7 2010, 10:16 PM, said:

A charge for carry on bags might be all right. The last time I flew - three weeks ago - I spent more time waiting for the bozos to drag their stuff out of the overhead carriers than I spent waiting at the luggage carousel.

Agreed...

Charging for checked bags but not carry on has had some really deleterious effects on boaridng times.

Everyone and their brother seems to be carrying full sized suitcases onto the plane which really slows things down. I'm in Orlando right now for the SPIE conference. The flight from Boston was only about 75% full, however, the luggage bins were terrible overloaded because most of the fliers were carrying to large carry on bags.

This probably del;ayed our departure by 15 as folks were despately stowing and restowing bags and (finally) having them moved down into the plane.

[jdonn]

This reminds me of the cell phone ban at major ACBL events. Perhaps they wouldn't have to charge for carry on bags if they strictly enforced the size limits prior to boarding.

[jjbrr]

Ryanair has been thinking about establishing a lav fee for at least a year now, as a management class I attended studied Ryanair's business model and this came up.

Everyone generally agreed that they weren't seriously considering implementing this, but instead were using it as cheap advertising and as a way to generate discussion about the business among customers, which is the sort of thing the president of the company is very interested in doing and has done several times in the past.

I seem to recall they threatened to charge for wheelchair rentals at the airport or some such nonsense.

Carry on luggage is absolutely ridiculous now, and I think if airlines are going to charge to check luggage, they should charge for carry on luggage that isnt just a personal item. It's such a hassle dealing with the jerk offs who carry those big rolling bags onto the plane only to discover it's too big to fit overhead.

[Echognome]

jjbrr, on Apr 7 2010, 02:01 PM, said:

It's such a hassle dealing with the jerk offs who carry those big rolling bags onto the plane only to discover it's too big to fit overhead.

My understanding is that if you bring a bag onboard a plane and there's no room, they force you to check it in. If this happens, then you do not get charged the check-in luggage. So in my view, it's the rules that are creating the problem as they encourage people to bring all of their luggage onboard. Of course, I agree with everyone that the current situation lends itself to slower boarding and deboarding times.

[mycroft]

I was forced out of YYC to put my built for carryon suitcase into an open-top, solid-sided wooden check before negotiating U.S. Customs. I've had people check it before, but never to that standard.

It passed.

And yeah, the "no free checked baggage" thing is causing more people to try all-carryon, which I have done for 15 years because I don't have to wait for my baggage to not arrive. If you don't have experience with packing for carryon, you cause failure. If you have a full airplane, built for 65% carryon, with 80% having carryon, well, it doesn't fit.

Put the price - as well as the price of all the fees - in the damn ticket price, and be done with it. It's just numbers - the final price is the same anyway.

[jdonn]

mycroft, on Apr 7 2010, 07:31 PM, said:

Put the price - as well as the price of all the fees - in the damn ticket price, and be done with it. It's just numbers - the final price is the same anyway.

I'm all for so-called "ala carte" pricing. I don't want to finance the next guy's blanket and side of green beans. But certain things should be considered a right (given that the ticket is purchased), and use of a bathroom is one of them.

[Phil]

Shipping your luggage has become more popular now. This used to be for the Thurston Howell III's of the world, but if you have ever had your luggage 'lost' or been nailed by these silly fees, it doesn't look so bad.

I'm expecting to bring some family members to New Orleans this summer and I'm going to look into it.

[jjbrr]

[Mbodell]

Phil, on Apr 8 2010, 07:21 AM, said:

Shipping your luggage has become more popular now. This used to be for the Thurston Howell III's of the world, but if you have ever had your luggage 'lost' or been nailed by these silly fees, it doesn't look so bad.

I'm expecting to bring some family members to New Orleans this summer and I'm going to look into it.

I flew business class at Christmas because the fees for checked baggage (which was unavoidable due to presents I was carrying) were within a couple of dollars as the business class upgrade (which then lets you have free baggage). It is weird to me that taking 2 suitcases on an international flight is roughly as costly as flying business class!

[matmat]

just as long as they don't charge fees for the seatbelt.

[mike777]

Flying to Chicago in about 12 hours no extra fees for carryon but buying a ticket is a hassle, price changes every ten minutes with online purchases. Checking in online was a hassle just now.

[barmar]

RichMor, on Apr 7 2010, 03:16 PM, said:

A charge for the lav is a horrible idea.

How many people noticed that they said this was only being proposed for short flights (1 hour or less)?

Most of the planes I've been on for such short flights have been tiny, just 3 seats across with a tiny aisle. They didn't allow passengers to get out of their seats during the flight, and I'm not sure they even had lavatories.

[Mbodell]

barmar, on Apr 8 2010, 07:52 PM, said:

RichMor, on Apr 7 2010, 03:16 PM, said:

A charge for the lav is a horrible idea.

How many people noticed that they said this was only being proposed for short flights (1 hour or less)?

I noticed, but it is a slippery slope. But airlines have already had similar problems. You can't get out of your seat for the last 30 minutes of flights to some airports, and flying at Christmas from Canada to the US right after the underwear guy we couldn't get up for the last hour of the flight. So that was even worse than pay toilets, it was no toilets at all.

I'm more ticked off by inconveniences in the name of "security" (but don't want to talk about the ACBL cell phone ban), but still find the pay toilets a little off. Ryan Air also tried to charge more for people who needed wheel chairs (but failed due to disability charges) and a number of airlines in a number of countries have toyed with charging people more money if they are too large. I prefer paying a little more and having all the stupid charges included, but I understand YMMV.

[RichMor]

barmar, on Apr 8 2010, 10:52 PM, said:

RichMor, on Apr 7 2010, 03:16 PM, said:

A charge for the lav is a horrible idea.

How many people noticed that they said this was only being proposed for short flights (1 hour or less)?

Most of the planes I've been on for such short flights have been tiny, just 3 seats across with a tiny aisle. They didn't allow passengers to get out of their seats during the flight, and I'm not sure they even had lavatories.

So if I can hold it for an hour I can use the lav for free, else I have to pay ?

That's the point. The duration of the flight or any restrictions on use of the lav is a different discussion.