Alliegant Air now charging for Carry Ons!

[Coolcruise02]

Ok, I understand and agree! :)

[newbiecruiser09]

Frankly, I sometimes wish my preferred airline (DL) would do this. I'm sick and tired of watching people lugging oversized bags onboard. They stuff them so full they don't fit in the overhead, then they stand in the aisle blocking traffic while they try to take stuff out to make it fit. Never mind the fact that they can barely lift the thing over their head to put it in the bin or take it out, and end up bruising other pax in the process when the unwieldy bag slips from their grasp and hits someone's head or shoulder. All so they don't have to pay to check a bag.

 

A rollaboard, per se, doesn't generally bother anyone. What bothers me and others is:

-oversized rollaboards that do not fit in the bins wheels or handles first, and have to be turned sideways, thus taking up the space of 2 standard (allowable) sized rollaboards, and causing late boarding pax to have to have their bags gate checked (i.e. delays the flight)

-overstuffed rollaboards that do not fit in the bins no matter which way they are turned, thus requiring the owner to block the aisle (and delay the flight) while trying to removed as much as possible from the suitcase and its outer pockets to get the bag to fit

-pax who selfishly put their small personal item, or multiple small personal items in the overhead, along with their rollaboard, before boarding has concluded (again, leading to gate check bags which = flight delays)

-pax whose "small personal item" is a large duffel bag or other piece of luggage, and really isn't a "small personal item" at all

 

Completely agree with all points but what really irks me is that the airlines gate and flight crews LET THEM DO IT!!! The bags are obviously over the allowable limits yet no one has the b$%ls to tell them "I'm sorry, that piece is over the allowed limit, let me check it for you here". While I travel a bit and did work in the airline industry years ago I am not the most knowledgeable and yet I can still tell which passengers will not get their cases into the bins. You cannot tell me the gate and flight crews cannot figure it out too. If they did their jobs, enforced their rules, things would go smoother but of course they may offend someone and heaven forbid they do that.

[janabm81]

A rollaboard, per se, doesn't generally bother anyone. What bothers me and others is:

-oversized rollaboards that do not fit in the bins wheels or handles first, and have to be turned sideways, thus taking up the space of 2 standard (allowable) sized rollaboards, and causing late boarding pax to have to have their bags gate checked (i.e. delays the flight)

-overstuffed rollaboards that do not fit in the bins no matter which way they are turned, thus requiring the owner to block the aisle (and delay the flight) while trying to removed as much as possible from the suitcase and its outer pockets to get the bag to fit

-pax who selfishly put their small personal item, or multiple small personal items in the overhead, along with their rollaboard, before boarding has concluded (again, leading to gate check bags which = flight delays)

-pax whose "small personal item" is a large duffel bag or other piece of luggage, and really isn't a "small personal item" at all

 

I totally agree with you and I must add that if airlines would stand by their own rules and only allow the allotted sized & amount of carry-ons then there would be no need for any new fees (besides airline's greed). The people who do the above things know they are in the wrong but act as though they are above/better than every one else and therefore are in the right with breaking the rules and since the airlines seem to be too lazy to uphold the rules every one else (the other passengers) has to deal with all the bull in the end.

[waterbug123]

Completely agree with all points but what really irks me is that the airlines gate and flight crews LET THEM DO IT!!! The bags are obviously over the allowable limits yet no one has the b$%ls to tell them "I'm sorry, that piece is over the allowed limit, let me check it for you here".

 

Agreed! And while gate checking a bag is generally offered as a complimentary convenience, when the bag being gate checked is over the allowable carry on size, the normal checked bag fee should be charged. That would help even more to prevent the Rules-Don't-Apply-To-Me-People from even attempting to bring bags like that onboard.

[writesonstuff]

True, the only other area where you see a rush toward generics is with medications, but that is a whole different industry that you couldn't begin to compare with airline travel.

 

You have to admit though, so much about airline pricing is counterintuitive.... those like yourself who have been flying so frequently and for so long might forget why pricing doesn't make sense to most consumers. Things like round trip flights being cheaper than one-way, longer flights cheaper than shorter ones. Also, the idea of seats becoming more expensive as time goes on is not what people expect because it is so different from how everything else is priced.

 

Take a pair of jeans.... all the jeans on the rack cost the same, There aren't 5 pairs at $30, 5 pairs at $40, etc so that as you go on there are only the most expensive pairs left. In fact, it is just the opposite... the longer they stay on the rack the lower the prices go. Same with cruises, same with cars on the lot, same with just about everything else except airline tickets. That is what throws people and irritates consumers about the airline industry..... and that is why you will get people coming on here complaining about what they perceive to be bizarre pricing practices. Luckily there are a few people on here, yourself included, that can explain things to those who don't get it.

 

I need an explanation on the jeans racks as not having similar "counterintuitive" pricing as air tickets. Aren't there jeans at $50 and a rack or shelf of jeans at $100 and others at $150 and in the very back of the jeans area the clearance rack of $25 jeans? I would say that there are qualities that consumers value in jeans other than to cover their legs and the jeans that have not been in demand will be put on sale then wind up in clearance. The same with cruises? Some cruises go on sale some don't. Cars, ditto. Not trying to be a contradict you, trying to understand your point.

 

What I do take from your insights as well as the comments from the others on this thread is that the airlines have not been able to translate (and maybe more importantly communicate) their business model to their target consumer. The evidence of this failure being the statistic that worldwide 97% of all airlines fail (declare bankruptcy) within six years of startup.

 

In any case, at least most CC posters must have a cruise to look forward to if they are trying to figure out how to get from point A to B.

 

Cheers!

[vjmatty]

I need an explanation on the jeans racks as not having similar "counterintuitive" pricing as air tickets. Aren't there jeans at $50 and a rack or shelf of jeans at $100 and others at $150 and in the very back of the jeans area the clearance rack of $25 jeans? I would say that there are qualities that consumers value in jeans other than to cover their legs and the jeans that have not been in demand will be put on sale then wind up in clearance. The same with cruises? Some cruises go on sale some don't. Cars, ditto. Not trying to be a contradict you, trying to understand your point.

 

I see what you're asking.... my analogy was assuming same flight=same pair of jeans. So if you have a rack of the same Calvin Klein low rise boot cut jeans, they don't have first-come, first-serve low-priced $10 pairs, then the remaining pairs are $20, then $30, etc. Instead, they are all priced the same, and what doesn't sell within a few months gets marked down, and then when the season is over they are on the clearance rack at an even lower price. Sure there are different styles and brands of jeans in the store at different prices, but I'd compare those to different flight destinations on different airlines.

 

Airline tickets go up over time, and there are fixed limited numbers of seats at each price. You can be sitting next to someone who paid twice what you paid for your ticket, even if both are nonrefundable, based on when you bought your ticket. Actually it is even more complicated than that, which leads to even more convoluted expectations on the part of the average passenger. Add this to the fact that in a capitalistic society we are encouraged to look at the almighty dollar as the measure of all value. I know myself when I look at a list of flights from point A to point B, it is really hard not to take a price difference into account, even if it is only $20. It may have to do with being raised in a country where most prices end in .99 to give the buyer that feeling of getting a bargain but I digress :rolleyes:

[kenish]

I see what you're asking.... my analogy was assuming same flight=same pair of jeans.

 

A really bad analogy, sorry. Unlike jeans, airline seats are a perishable commodity...if a seat departs empty the opportunity for revenue is gone forever. Compare that to jeans...if they don't sell a pair today, they can always try again tomorrow.

 

Imagine instead, that the store receives 150 pairs of the jeans. In 330 days, any unsold jeans will be burned. Each pair of jeans costs the store whether or not it's sold. (They have to pay the distributor, advertisers, landlord, employees, insurance company, etc.)

 

Taking the analogy a step farther, some customers will accept any brand, style, and several expiration dates from whatever store in town has the lowest price...while others need a specific pair of jeans and usually with less than a week's advance notice.

 

So, the store has the challenge to sell every pair of jeans at the maximum possible price. A policy of putting them on clearance the day before their destruction wouldn't accomplish that.

 

Here's a good article on the topic, and explains fare buckets nicely:

 

http://hackmytrip.com/2012/02/20/understanding-airline-inventory/

[Lookingforfacts]

A rollaboard, per se, doesn't generally bother anyone. What bothers me and others is:

-oversized rollaboards that do not fit in the bins wheels or handles first, and have to be turned sideways, thus taking up the space of 2 standard (allowable) sized rollaboards, and causing late boarding pax to have to have their bags gate checked (i.e. delays the flight)

-overstuffed rollaboards that do not fit in the bins no matter which way they are turned, thus requiring the owner to block the aisle (and delay the flight) while trying to removed as much as possible from the suitcase and its outer pockets to get the bag to fit

-pax who selfishly put their small personal item, or multiple small personal items in the overhead, along with their rollaboard, before boarding has concluded (again, leading to gate check bags which = flight delays)

-pax whose "small personal item" is a large duffel bag or other piece of luggage, and really isn't a "small personal item" at all

 

Completely agree with all points but what really irks me is that the airlines gate and flight crews LET THEM DO IT!!! The bags are obviously over the allowable limits yet no one has the b$%ls to tell them "I'm sorry, that piece is over the allowed limit, let me check it for you here". While I travel a bit and did work in the airline industry years ago I am not the most knowledgeable and yet I can still tell which passengers will not get their cases into the bins. You cannot tell me the gate and flight crews cannot figure it out too. If they did their jobs, enforced their rules, things would go smoother but of course they may offend someone and heaven forbid they do that.

 

Agreed. What really irks me are passengers who are upset when passengers follow the airlines rules and not the rules that only exist in their minds.

 

Some airlines allow "bin bags" which will only fit length wise. Jet blue:

—for our Airbus A320: 26" L (66 cm) x 18" W (45.72 cm) x 12" H (30.48 cm) I don't think a bag that size will fit wheels or handles first.

 

Make sure you know the rule before you allow yourself to get bothered by passengers who know the rule better then you do.

 

I'll go one step further. Does a rule even really exist if the GA and FA make no attempt to enforce the written policy?

 

What irks me. Sometimes I'll only bring a small cabin bag. It could fit under the seat in front of me. I want the leg room. I want to put the bag in the bin. I don't think it's fair to be asked not to use the bin.

[waterbug123]

Agreed. What really irks me are passengers who are upset when passengers follow the airlines rules and not the rules that only exist in their minds.

 

Some airlines allow "bin bags" which will only fit length wise. Jet blue:

—for our Airbus A320: 26" L (66 cm) x 18" W (45.72 cm) x 12" H (30.48 cm) I don't think a bag that size will fit wheels or handles first.

 

Make sure you know the rule before you allow yourself to get bothered by passengers who know the rule better then you do.

 

I'll go one step further. Does a rule even really exist if the GA and FA make no attempt to enforce the written policy?

 

What irks me. Sometimes I'll only bring a small cabin bag. It could fit under the seat in front of me. I want the leg room. I want to put the bag in the bin. I don't think it's fair to be asked not to use the bin.

 

1. I know the rules. When I referred to bags that don't fit wheels or handles first, you'll note that I referred to OVERSIZED bags that do not fit wheels or handles first. If Jet Blue allows you to bring a bag that is 26" long, then by definition it's not oversized and I would have no issue with that. Delta, and many others however, do not allow bags of that size, yet pax bring them on anyway, and then cannot fit them in wheels or handles first, as the FA's ask them to. THAT is what bothers me.

 

2. I don't believe anyone has said that if you ONLY bring a small cabin bag you still need to put it under the seat. What I and others have said is that if you are bringing a large carry on bag that is going overhead, THEN the small personal item (or cabin bag as you call it) should go under the seat. The exception that has been pointed out is if boarding has concluded and there is still overhead space, no one has an issue if you then put the small bag overhead as well. Don't get irked by believing you've been asked to do something that in reality, you haven't been asked at all.

[pms4104]

Agreed! And while gate checking a bag is generally offered as a complimentary convenience, when the bag being gate checked is over the allowable carry on size, the normal checked bag fee should be charged. That would help even more to prevent the Rules-Don't-Apply-To-Me-People from even attempting to bring bags like that onboard.

I have long believed that the airlines are missing out on a great revenue opportunity. They could make a wad of money if they were to install credit card swipe machines at their gates, and hire a staffer to police the carryon crap, someone to say: "So sorry, your bag is too big/you have too many carryon pieces ... please swipe your credit card to check the excess item(s)." Well, and for those who are over the allotted carryon limit (size and/or quantity) and refuse to pay ... their bags can be held at the airline baggage service office and retrieved on their next pass thru that airport. If that staffer snagged only two bags per flight (and we know they'd find way more than that), those fees would be in excess of the cost of providing this service at the departure gate ... yes, airlines, there's $$$$ to be made if you have the spine to iimplement a fair policy.