Allegiant Air MD-83 (N865GA) at LAX
Allegiant Air has announced they are looking into the possibility of charging passengers a carry-on baggage fee. As reported by AviationWeek, Allegiant Air President Andrew Levy stated the carry-on baggage fees are “intriguing,” during a presentation at the Low-Cost Airlines World Americas conference on May 3rd.
Currently, Spirit Airlines is the only US-based airline that charges for carry-on bags. They too are an ultra low cost carrier and first received a lot of flack when they announced the new fees. However, it doesn’t seem to bother travelers enough, since the airline has continued to make additional profit on the fees. For the first quarter of 2011, Spirit doubled their bag fee revenue compared to first quarter 2010 and average non-ticket revenue per passenger increased by 37.9%.
Remember, weight costs money. The more an airplane and its contents weighs, the more fuel (and money) it takes to fly. It might anger most people thinking about paying another fee, but why should someone with no luggage pay for someone with luggage? More importantly, why would airlines turn down this revenue maker? Charging for carry-ons doesn’t cause health concerns or kill anyone, so why do passengers keep acting like it is the end of the world to charge for carry-ons?
When asked what Allegiant’s future plans are for charging a carry-on bag fee, Jordan McGee Director of Allegian Corporate Communications explained, “It’s really too premature to provide any further info on potential charges for carry-ons.” However, she confirmed that Allegiant is, “considering it.”
For me, this is not a huge surprise and I have been waiting for Allegiant to announce such a fee. Allegiant’s model of providing cheap prices, with fees for everything beyond getting you from point A to B seems to welcome a new fee like this. You better believe other airlines are watching how Spirit and Allegiant are doing with carry-on fees and it might not just be ultra low cost carriers having them in the too near distant future.
Image: Brandon Farris
Spirit Airlines Airbus A319 landing.
Spirit has announced a new fee structure and it is causing some airline-hate.
For me, Spirit is the best example of a US-based ultra low cost carrier. They have perfected the art of ala cart pricing, where they offer rock bottom fares, but then have fees for everything else. I think Ryanair holds the crown currently for world-wide uber ultra low cost carrier, but Spirit is quickly catching up. Spirit’s creative fees (ie charging for carry-on bags) causes a lot of media-drama, but it works for them. Most recently they announced a change in their fee structure. If you wait until the last 24 hours before your flight to pay the bag fees, you are going to pay more, but if you pay with more than a day’s notice, your fees stay the same.
Looking at some of the headlines related to this story, you would think Spirit just stole your first born child. For example, Jaunted titled their story, “Spirit Airlines Raises Baggage Fees Again, Screws Over Passengers.” Then, last night the The Consumerist had their story titled something like “Airline charges you a fee to pay a fee,” trying to insinuate some sort of evil double fee. However, it looks like they came to their sense, since this morning, the title has been changed to, “Spirit Airlines Adds Fee For Not Paying Your Baggage Fees Far Enough In Advance.” I have to give them credit for the change.
When first looking at the fees (early vs late, domestic vs international, early vs late), it got very confusing. Luckily Spirit simplified it for me into four tiers:
1. When reserving online more than 24 hours in advance: no price changes
2. While checking online or by telephone: $5 more
3. Waiting until at the airport check-in counter or kiosk: $10 more
4. Pay at the gate: flat $45 fee
Pretty much, if you do not do things last minute, you aren’t going to be charged more. Plus, if you are part of their $9 Fare Club, you will save $10 per fee. Why wouldn’t Spirit do this? People keep flying and paying their fees and Spirit made almost $56million in bag fees alone last year just from January to September (to compare, Delta made over $730million during the same time). This is a lot of extra revenue and very tempting for airlines not only to keep fees, but look at other creative ways to add to fees. According to Dan Webb on Things in the Sky, Spirit has been able to increase their over all bag fee per passenger from $9.59 in the fourth quarter of 2009 to $16.82 for the fourth quarter of 2010.
Some are trying to lobby the government to fight the bag fees and force airlines to include your first bag in the price of your ticket. This just seems inappropriate to me. In the long run, airlines will charge more overall for your ticket and fees and fares should be market driven, not dictated by the government.
Airlines like Southwest and JetBlue still refuse to charge passengers for their first bag, providing alternative for passengers. “Southwest has a 40 year history of sharing the wealth of the maximum value we provide whether it’s in the Customer Service of our People, the predictable efficiency of our operation, or the transparency of our pricing and low fares,” Brad Hawkins with Southwest Communications explains. ” Bags Fly Free and ticketing changes are the pillars of our fee-free stance in not nickel and diming our Customers.”
If you don’t want to pay the fee, then either pay more for a first class ticket or choose an airline that won’t charge you a fee. Even with fees, airline travel with-in the US is very affordable and it is a good thing many can take it for granted.
Image: Noel back in Zurich
Avianova Airbus A320-200 (EI-ELE)
If you haven’t heard about Spirit Airline’s new (and “omg shocking”) advertisements, they are causing quite a stir. They are once again stealing right out of the Ryanair hand book on how to get a load of free publicity.
What do I think about their ads? Well any airline that gets me blogging about their ads are doing something right, and I will leave it at that. If Spirit’s new ad is too saucy for you? Well maybe you shouldn’t take a look at the Avianova ad found by Matt Molnar with NYCAviation.
Sure, advertising 101 teaches you that skin sells, but come on. Anything about routes? Amenities? Costs? Nope. Does this sort of advertising work? Well the airline industry has had a history of sexy advertising. This shouldn’t come as a surprise that both Spirit and Avianova have risky advertisements, they are both partly owned by the same company, Indigo Partners.
What are your thoughts? Are the ads going too far?
Spirit Airlines Airbus A319 (N504NK)
Do you have a business? Do you have some extra cash you want to spend on awesome advertising? Have you wanted the challenge to create an ad on a barf bag? Well Spirit Airlines has a deal for you!
Spirit Airlines has announced their Mile High Media plan with the tagline “marketing with altitude” (I am guessing they couldn’t decide which saying to go with, so they went with both). With this new plan, you are able to advertise on almost anything over their entire fleet. Check out some of these deals:
| Location |
Total Cost |
| Overhead Bins |
$248,045 |
| Tray tables |
$300,000 |
| Window Panels |
$241,868 |
| Bulkhead Panels |
$97,095 |
| Seatback Inserts |
$127,500 |
| Beverage Napkins |
$92,426 |
| Ticket Jackets |
$69,500 |
| Boarding Passes |
$55,500 |
| Clear Cups |
$64,518 |
| Styrofoam Cups |
$20,673 |
| Beverage Carts |
$46,650 |
| Aprons |
$44,000 |
| Lavatory Door Panels |
$54,885 |
| Lavatory Mirror Clings |
$18,950 |
| Barf Bags |
$20,049 |
Man, If I had an extra $20,049 I would LOVE to put ads on the barf bags. Their report has a lot of other interesting facts about Spirit Airline’s passengers (according to them):
Those who fly Spirit:
* 5.2% are aged 18-24, 15.6% from 25-34, 26.1% from 35-44, 34.9% from 45-60, and 18.2% are over 60.
* 47% are men and 53% are women.
* 42% have children and 58% do not.
* 82% own their homes
* 99% that fly, plan to fly Spirit again (hmmm).
I am not sure about that last one, but we can pretend I guess. At least from the people I have spoken with, they don’t plan to fly Spirit Airlines again, yet do when they compare fares.
Although advertising on weird locations causes most people to groan, I don’t think it is a bad idea. You have a captive audience and having anything to look at can be somewhat entertining. I really think a creative marketing person could have a lot of fun coming up with an ad on a lavatory door or on a barf bag.
AirTran installed ads on the backs of all their seats a while ago and I have flown them a few times since and wasn’t annoyed.I think if you found ads on your first class seat for Virgina Atlantic, you might have a big issue. But finding ads all over on an “ultra low-cost” airline, it shouldn’t really surprise you too much.
For more information, check out Spirit’s nine page advertising booklet.
Source: ABC News via @FutureofFlight Image: 64N21W
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Surprisingly Southwest Airlines made bank off fees in 2009
According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), US airlines made $7.8 billion in fees in 2009. This is a 42% increase over 2008. BTS says in a release “the airlines collected $2.7 billion in baggage fees, $2.4 billion from reservation change fees, and $2.7 billion from other ancillary fees, such as pet transportation fees and frequent flyer award program mileage sales.”
Delta brought in the most money with $1.65 billion in fees and surprisingly Southwest was fourth. Southwest might not charge for bags, but they do charge for other services like pets, unaccompanied minors and an early check-in option. Even before Spirit Airlines started charging for carry-ons, 21% of their total operating revenue came from fees — the highest of any other airline.
$7.8 billion is a lot of money. Passengers keep complaining about fees, but it is obvious that they keep paying them. I am not going to be surprised if more creative fees start showing up in the next few years.
Source: USA Today Image: TVL1970
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