WHAT A CARRY-ON

So, just when you thought those dreadful airline carry-on baggage battles were a lost cause, at last one carrier seems to have recognized that they have to try and do something about it: “try” being the operative word.

I have written about this cockamamie situation before: Simply stated, when carriers started charging for checked baggage, they inadvertently created an immediate incentive for their passengers to try and carry everything on board. As a result wheelie (roll-on-board) bags have got bigger and bigger, as have the territorial squabbles over bin space. “You can’t put that over my seat – take it to the back where you’re sitting. I want to put my coat there!” was one recent rumpus I overheard on an AC flight. All of which has resulted in the now ubiquitous boarding-gate announcement of, “Ladies and gentlemen we have a full flight today so overhead space will be limited. We’re therefore looking for volunteers to check in their carry-on bags with us here at the gate. There will be no charge for this.”

Anyone who takes up this offer has just effectively cheated the system out of a checked bag fee and – by avoiding all those dreadful baggage belts – has the bonus of knowing their bag has an infinitely better chance of making it onto the same aircraft they’ll be on. This craziness has become such a part of the new norm that you could have knocked me over with a wet baguette when last week, 24-hours prior to a flight on JetBlue, I received the following (unexpurgated) email:

Just a quick heads-up that we’ve rolled out a new option, for customers departing from Fort Lauderdale only, that lets you check your carry-on bag for only $5. That means you can breeze through the TSA checkpoint hands-free and more carefree.

Bags can be a maximum of 22” X 14” X 9” and 25 lbs. and meet all carry-on requirements. Crewmembers at any counter will weigh, tag, collect payment—and send your bag on its way. Look for JetBlue’s new Carry-On Bag Desk near the Bag Drop on the Departures level.

Really? To be gracious, it may be a tiny step in the right direction but – IF it sticks – one can’t help but feel this approach is only going to add several new twists to the fee avoidance game. For one, like AC and WestJet, JetBlue currently charges around $30 to check a bag. With this confusingly amorphous new option of what can only be described as ‘Checked Carry-On Baggage’, some passengers who might otherwise have checked their bag at the full rate, will now be tempted to try the new $5 game. While it might save the passenger $25, it will simultaneously cost the airline that amount in lost ancillary revenue!

For the latter reason, the above-referenced, “Carry-On Bag Desk” will inevitably become a ‘Bag-Sizer’ battleground. Imagine the kind of joyous customer interfaces that will be generated by news like, “I’m sorry madam, but this is too big to qualify as ‘Checked Carry-On’ – this is a ‘Checked-Checked’ size bag. And now that you’re checking it at the airport as opposed to online, it will cost you an extra $20 for a total of $50!” What fun!

The best solution to this problem is actually dead simple and is being successfully practiced in Canada: Charge slightly more to take a bag on board than to check it. Swoop and Flair both charge $30 to check it and $35 to take on board. Not a big difference but that seemingly insignificant $5 difference is enough to tilt the scales: I can’t talk for Swoop, but I know that Flair flights see an average of only about 20% of passengers taking a wheelie-type bag on board. As a direct consequence, the boarding and disembarkation processes are faster, friendlier and altogether are more efficient.

So while kudos should go to jetBlue for taking the lead in at least recognizing that something has to give, this approach does seem a little bit like pouring oil on the flames. Unfortunately the KISS principle has never been something that comes easily to the world’s airlines.