Airline industry insiders say passengers have become carried away with carry-on baggage, leading to costly delays. That’s prompting calls for changes to how airplanes charge for baggage, with some discount airlines like Sunwing and Spirit already beginning to flip the fee structure so passengers pay for the privilege of keeping their bags on board.

  • Em Adespoton
    38•1 year ago

    I don’t get it — the planes haven’t changed size and the regulations for what you can carry on haven’t changed. So how come we’re seeing an increase in carry on baggage? Are they trying to squeeze more people on the planes than they were designed for?

    • athos77
      45•1 year ago

      Blame FedEx, and Amazon.

      So … Once upon a time, you’d get to bring one or two checked bags for free. Then FedEx came along and you could ship documents overnight (except it was really expensive). But they started to bring costs down and it became more reasonable to ship stuff that way, at which point the USPS, UPS and other carriers had to start offering similar options or risk becoming the second or third choice carrier. But they needed a way to quickly move letters and packages around the country without having to buy an entire fleet of airplanes.

      And then a bright person said, “Hey, why do they have to be our airplanes?” And they went to United and American and all the other carriers and said, “Hey, we want to buy space in your baggage holds, and we’re willing to pay!” And suddenly the space under the plane where they tossed people’s bags stopped being a way to lose money (did to the extra fuel needed for the extra weight), it became a revenue stream, it was profitable, and the airlines rejoiced.

      But now every suitcase a passenger brought up meant less space for those lovely, lovely packages. So the airlines started restricting suitcases - number, size, weight, whatever they could do to create more room for packages - and the start of Amazon only meant even more packages that wanted space. And other companies wanted to compete with Amazon, and packages increasingly needed timely delivery to ever more remote parts of the country.

      Anyway, the upshot is that - in addition to squeezing in ever more passengers - nowadays, when you pay to bring along an extra suitcase or oversized/ heavy item, the airlines are actually charging you some of the revenue that they’re losing because that space is no longer available to carry lovely, lovely packages.

      • snooggums
        22•1 year ago

        It wasn’t that the airlines were losing money on baggage, it was included in the ticket. It was that they wanted to double dip by charging for the baggage because they could also sell the space to the shipping companies.

        • @[email protected]English
          2•1 year ago

          It was included in the ticket because if you didn’t check a bag the belly would be empty. Now if you don’t check a bag they get to fill the belly with air freight, so they want you to try to jam your life into the overhead compartment so they can resell the belly to cargo customers.

    • folkrav
      30•1 year ago

      Check-in baggage getting more and more restrictive or expensive on weight/size, maybe?

      • @[email protected]
        51•1 year ago

        This is exactly what it is.

        Airlines used to include at least one checked bag as standard. Then they decided this was something they could upcharge for. At the same time, they were getting worse and worse at actually delivering checked baggage to the right place, so you were basically paying for the privelige of having your luggage lost.

        Passengers responded in the only logical way; bring all your luggage into the cabin.

        Cue surprised Pikachu face from all the airlines as the incentives they created produce an obvious and predictable outcome.

        • qupada
          11•1 year ago

          Also don’t forget this decade’s follow on:

          People started putting Airtags in their suitcases because they wanted to know where their luggage was and call the airlines on their BS, so they banned those in checked bags too.

          Zero attempt to remedy the root cause, but damned if they aren’t going to stop people trying to cure the symptoms.