Dec 5, 2009
Transatlantic baggage allowance
Airlines are all of a sudden (since September) coming together in limiting their free baggage allowance in economy on transatlantic flights to one bag of 23kg! And they are charging $50 for a second bag! What is this conspiracy against the public? When I first started flying we could take 2 bags of 32 kg each. Then it went down to 2 of 23kg, and now just one! What is this decrease of quality of life??? It doesn't sound right to me, it should go the other way around.
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8 comments:
I entirely disagree. If my ticket price is lower because I do not subsidize people with two bags this is a good thing. As long as ticket prices reflect the cost reduction due to lower fuel usage it is exactly what should be done. Price according to how the costs are created.....How much is it to send something of 23kilogram from the US to Europe??? I guess 50 is not even a lot and you get it the same day and not 1 week later
yeah, i dunno. i think it is more of a general cost cutting trend, wont see anything in prices. too bad. plus, how many normal people go transatlantic with only one peace of luggage? i don't mind business people subsidizing me. btw, if we price according to how costs are created, perhaps then we should weight both the luggage and the person? :)
skinny people are subsidising fat people in many more ways than I had thought I now realise!!!
seb, you are right but I have doubts as whether ticket prices reflect the cost reduction due to lower fuel usage...is it rofit seeking disguised in environmental clothing? and also the fact that all airlines are colluding, not allowing for the price cutting competition that is so beneficial to us!
Certainly airlines want to make profit an will try to get as many euros out of their customers as possible. But is it not the case that relative to other costs the cost of tickets for flights have generally fallen despite an increase in fuel costs?
I dont know about transatlantic but within Europe definitely and to Africa they have been roughly stable since 8 years despite rising fuel costs...
this does not mean that the price reduction due to fewer bags is passed to lower prices for passengers with one bag but at least there seem to be some form of competition going on...maybe transatlantic flights did not get enough of this yet
I guess prices went down in real terms over the last decades...but im annoyed by this simply because I am human, and the way the issue is framed doesn't please me...i would rather pay 250$ and get "free" checked bags than pay 200$ and have to pay 50$ for baggage! a standard result of behaviroal eocnomics that tells humans are not rational! but in economics terms, charging for bags sperarately is most probbaly optimal!
I can certainly agree that people are irrational...I now have to pay extra to check in my luggage on easyjet and id rather have had that reflected already in the price. and i doubt that easyjet has actually lowered its prices, thus giving an advantage to those who travel light...
Sebastian:
I do not think you got it at all. We are not talking costs plus reasonable margin here, we are talking free market, ie.:
a) We'll do whatever the market bears. How bad do we have to get before people start saying in bigger numbers, forget it, I'll just call and send pictures/vacation somewhere closer.
b) They did it (in this case few US airlines extending a concept well tested at home) and got away with it (did not go bankrupt). We need to do the same or they cut their costs and have an advantage over us.
LH was one of the last ones to follow the trend. THey switched on Jan 1, 2010.
I bought my tickets last day of 2009 allowing two bags per person without extra charge. This may come as a shock to you, but today, couple days later, the same flights with one bag a person... cost exactly the same.
I am sorry to thwart your optimism, but this is just adding another hidden cost since they cannot get away with advertising EUR400 tickets and then adding EUR350 fuel surcharge (since airport taxes and such were already excluded, what else but plane amortization and fuel cost am I really paying to get my behind from A to B to have fuel charged as an extra?) on checkout.
As stated under b). If your logic (flying is cheper due to fuel being more expensive and the price remaining the same and now we have reached the point where we either increase the price or exclude one checked bag) was correct than this rule would need to apply to all long-haul flights, not just the ones across Atlantic. More over, if you really were right, this would only mean that instead of you being able to travel light (I assume no children yet, not traveling for longer and limited set of friends to bring stuff for either way) and you subsidizing me with two bags that you are so happy about not having to do any more, you (assuming you fly over the Pond too; and certainly I) subsidez those who travel to Asia and Africa. How would that make you any happier in the world of you mind beats me.
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