Communication Strategies

Back in 2008, American Airlines created a new policy in terms of their baggage fees.  The policy states a 15 fee for the first checked baggage and an additional charge for the second checked luggage.  Not long after, other airline companies such United Airlines and US Airways followed suit.

Despite having an IRS code specifying that charges for transportation of baggage were not taxable (News, Bloomberg), however, airline companies continued increasing their fees into what has now become a twenty-five dollar fee for the first checked baggage and an additional thirty-five dollars for the second checked baggage.  While issuing baggage fees may be starting to become a standard among the airline companies, this issue has since become a source of confusion for many passengers because of the lack of uniformity in the fees.

A traveler can have many options when it comes to their luggage.  They have the choice to pay the twenty-five dollars for checking one bag but doing it online could cost them only twenty-three dollars.  However, they also have the option to avoid having to pay any fee whatsoever by making all their belongings fit into a small carry-on bag.  Passengers have already worried in line about having excess baggage now they have to worry about fitting all the necessary items into one small bag.  This, plus one personal item, is the only thing allowed inside the plane free of charge.  This issue clearly leads into many time delays because everyone is trying to avoid having to pay for the baggage fees.  More bags come into the aircraft in the form of the carry-on bags and the flight attendants will have to do their jobs of trying to fit everything into the overhead compartments.  Otherwise, the passenger will have no choice but to place a tag on the bag so that they are allowed to go below the plane, adding up to the delay.  They could even try to lessen the load of their carry-on bags, if they already go beyond the allowance, by unpacking and taking off a few things thereby adding up to the delay.  It is with this knowledge that has led me to ask whether it is possible to place information on the baggage fees right at the base of every airline ticket, so that time delays and confusion could be avoided.

As a frequent flyer, this issue is of very high importance to me because I get to deal with it often.  The air travel industry has undergone many changes over the years, including the addition of the unnecessary baggage fees.  As a travel agent, I am also faced with various travelers who make comments about these baggage fees.  The different policies on baggage fees of the different airline companies tend to be very confusing thus leading them to make inquiries in how much it would cost them and in how they could best deal with their luggage. If it were up to me, this unnecessary confusion could be avoided easily  and thus the avoidance of time delays  if the policy was set straight, making traveling a less stressful thing to do.

After all, not all airplanes adopt the same policies in terms of the baggage fees.  Most airline companies such as American Airlines, Delta Airlines, Continental Airlines and United Airlines charge twenty-five for the first checked bag and thirty-five for the second.  Other companies such as Southwest and Jet Blue are still generous enough not to charge any fees for the first checked baggage.  However, aside from these fees, other things also have to be kept in mind such as charges for overweight and oversized bags.  This could add more confusion to the traveler as additional fees, starting at fifty dollars per excess kilo, would go up depending on the size and weight of the bag.  Of course, these fees also have exceptions  they would differ for the different classes of frequent flyers as well as the military personnel.  The charges would also double up for those taking round-trip.  Sometimes, airline companies would also put up promos for their customers thus making it hard to know the correct baggage charges beforehand.

It is truly confusing why airline companies would want to put up such fees to their customers.  Of course, it is understood that there are certain charges for moving the baggage from one point to another but, considering that the travel industry only has two kinds of luggage carry-on and lost (Haber), are the high costs really worth it  Could their claims that lost revenue from ticket sales and other factors such as higher fuel costs are the reason for the fees be reasonable enough for instilling such fees  If they could just have added these fees into the base fee of the ticket prices, there never would have been chaos among the customers in the first place.  Perhaps the airline companies would also have helped avoid creating disputes against the airport executives as they continue to accuse each other of being greedy for fee revenues (n.p.).

If the information regarding these baggage fees had been made clear at the start, there would perhaps be no issue among the travelers and the airline company staff.  Perhaps they could make a clear liquidation of where every dollar and cent of the baggage fees go so that the general public may know.  This way, their customers would never have to question such moves and there would be no reason for this issue to create so much noise in public.  Just think about the reports the US airline industry has been found to collect around 1.2 billion in excess baggage last year, according to the US Department of Transportation back in 2008 (n.p.).  Placing the correct information of the fees in the ticket or adding them up along with the ticket price thus taking them out entirely in the process could even help in reducing the confusion among their customers and make the check-in process speedier and hassle-free for everyone.