Spirit Airlines announced this morning that it would begin charging for some carry-on baggage. Really, is anyone surprised here? To be honest, considering Spirit’s focus on leisure markets it makes sense.
Currently, Spirit passengers are allowed a personal item (purse, briefcase, laptop case, etc.) and a free carry-on, which is pretty much an industry standard. Starting August 1st, only one personal item that sits under the seat will be allowed for free, as well as some “excluded items” like car seats, strollers, etc. On the same day, bags that can fit in the overhead bin will be subject to a fee – $20 for $9 Fare Club members who pay online, $30 for everyone else who pays online, and $45 for everyone who pays at the airport. The fee also includes boarding with the first group of passengers.
And Spirit is raising its checked baggage fees as well. The first checked bag costs $19 online, or $25 at the airport – those fees will go to $25 and $45, respectively. For some bags, there is now a distinction between domestic and international travel as well – the first international bag will cost $30 when paid online, for example.
The move also makes Spirit’s $9 Fare Club, which costs $39.99 per year, more valuable. Right now, those members are there for special offers, but Spirit is sweetening the deal by charging cheaper bag fees to those members when the new policy rolls out in August. Considering that the program offers some decent discounts ($15 online instead of $25 for the first bag on domestic flights, for example), I think it can be a good deal for those flying Spirit a few times a year. Another part of today’s news is Spirit’s new Penny Plus fares, which have a $0.01 base fare, plus taxes and fees. (How very Ryanair-like!) They will replace the $9 fares.
Let’s talk about the future here. Will other carriers follow suit? That one has me scratching my head a bit. On one hand, Sprit is a full-blown leisure carrier, which makes me think that the legacies will stay put. And we can look to Europe here – easyJet and Ryanair have more restrictive policies than the likes of British Airways, Air France, and Lufthansa. But then again, the European legacies have had traditionally better baggage policies than their American counterparts.
But it’s easy to find reasons why other carriers will follow Spirit here. The airline’s COO Ken McKenzie said that this move “will reduce the number of carry-on bags, which will improve inflight safety and efficiency by speeding up the boarding and deplaning process” in this morning’s news release. Of course, getting more ancillary revenue is a huge motivator here, but that’s not exactly the best thing to put in a press release.
From my few flights over the past few months, it definitely seems that passengers have wised up and are doing what they can to avoid baggage fees, primarily by bringing extra carry-ons that often end up getting gate-checked. That means lost ancillary revenue for the airline and a longer boarding process, increasing the probability of a flight leaving late. That, I think, actually encourages employees to gate check bags quickly, considering that airlines are often examining the on-time performance for each station, not the potentially-lost revenue.
I think the operational side, in terms of on-time performance, is really what helped set the price for the carry-on fee. For those paying online, it’s cheaper to pay for a checked bag. So the fee either motivates passengers to pack less, period, or to check their bags. With that policy, Spirit captures more revenue and will be able to improve on-time performance by reducing boarding times.
Though, when one considers on-time performance, it seems that this might be more of an issue for Spirit than for other carriers. A friend pointed out to me earlier today that Spirit has a pretty dense seating configuration. For example, its A321s seat 218 passengers, 35 more than a US Airways A321. So overhead bin space is at more of a premium for Spirit passengers already, increasing the possible number of gate-checked bags.
As always, we’ll just have to wait and see if other airlines follow. I’m not sure how likely it is, but I’m sure some legacy airlines might be giving this idea a closer look than they did in the past. And if one legacy carrier likes it enough, there’s a good chance most others will follow.
(Updated at 2:30 PM to reflect seating configurations.)
Photo Credit:
I think it’s a bad move. It makes me wonder how long until airlines start charging a mandatory “tip” like the cruiselines do?
The real question is whether this is a significant enough move to split the initial purchase costs from the day of travel costs in the mind of the consumer. Checked bag fees weren’t and, for folks who fly on Spirit, my guess is this isn’t either.
A very good point, Seth!