Is Southwest Airlines about to start charging for checked luggage?

I sure hope this doesn’t happen. I love Southwest and one of the reasons is because you don’t have to pay for luggage.

I’ve said this before to others, but IMO what makes the baggage fees annoying is the fact that you pay for them at the airport. When I plan for a trip I budget out money for how much it’s going to cost for things like airfare, hotel, etc., then spending money. Paying for bags at the airport feels more like the money is coming out of the spending money instead of the airfare budget. Yes, I do budget it that way, but mentally it just feels like “well there’s $25 less that I can spend on my vacation.” I think that’s where the problem lies. I wouldn’t mind paying for my bag, which I know I’m going to take, when I pay for my ticket. That wouldn’t be as annoying.

Honestly, I will probably stop booking Southwest as much if they do this. I work for a college and book 80% (about $100,000) of our flights on Southwest because of the no fee’s structure and ease of changing tickets. Letting anyone use the credit is a huge plus for us. If they implement fee’s, they are no better than the majors and I would go back to booking a wider variety of airlines. So so sad to even consider that they would do this!

Correct email please

It was only a matter of time. Delta’s bag fee has been so successful it’s about to be raised by $3. Anticipate $30 fees by the end of the year. Customers haven’t stopped flying, so it’s pretty much a green light. Has Southwest seen a noticeable uptick in travellers because of no baggage fees? And not just once-a-year-to-Orlando travellers?

I hope SWA realizes how much travelers value the flexibility of traveling with them. I love no frills and not being charged for bringing luggage on a trip (something I think is part of the travel experince.)

I also love that I can cancel without a problem or fees and use my transferable airline credit to book a friend’s trip. Last year, I had nearly $500 worth of travel vouchers, so my grandparents were able to come home for the holidays on that.

I also luv the customer service offered by their crew – this was the airline that returned my new Coach purse with everything inside within 24 hours when I left it on a flight last month. (A fail for me, was a win for SWA.)

Crossing fingers for no SWA fees,
@TravelPRgirl

I would not mind if Southwest charged for checked luggage, since that would not apply to me, but I would hope they would police carry-ons, since they are currently the worst offenders that I have seen as far as the people carrying on multiple, over-sized bags.

I’d be more worried about change fees and non-reuseable credit, which I think would influence a lot of their business travelers. Also it’d be great if they got rid of early bird check in.

When I buy a meal at Chili’s I expect that the drink will be included in the price. It is not though. We should have the government fix that too. When I go bowling, the shoe rental should also be included. But is is not. Well let’s get the government to fix that too. Where is the line on what is rediculous for the government to control. I think the government controlling bag fees for airlines is as rediculous as the government making sure I get a pickle with my Big Mac. It’s none of the government’s business.

While I agree that these types of fees (and fare restrictions) are bad news, I don’t jump to the conclusion that Southwest is “pretty close to changing something about their pricing” (per Candice, above). A good, well-run company knows the preferences of its customers and how strongly they feel about various features of their pricing model, i.e. “Do our customers really care if the value of their unused tickets is reusable for a year after purchase date, and if so, how much? Do enough of *our* customers (as opposed to industry-wide numbers) change tickets often enough to worry about this?” and “How valuable is our no-checked-bags fee to our customers? How many of them are aware of our relatively unique position on this? Would they rather airfares overall go up, if costs rise to the point something must give, or would they prefer bag fees as is the case everywhere else?”

The only way to find out these questions is to ask. Sure, everyone’s complaining about baggage fees, assigned seating fees, and so forth, but that’s in part because those fees are the only option that the legacy carriers gave travelers. (In fairness, that’s partly because Southwest, protected for years behind giant fuel hedges, was able to hold off on general fare increases and the legacy carriers were forced to match.)

Like all airlines, Southwest is under enormous cost pressures, including having concluded several rounds of negotiations with its unions for wage increases in exchange for what are euphemistically called “work rule adjustments” (translation: the employees give a little in terms of productivity standards). However, those higher wages kick in fairly fast, whereas the savings from productivity may lag behind, and may not save as much as predicted.

Southwest has been fairly upfront and frank that it’s looking at its options as to the best ways to increase revenue to remain profitable, and this kind of survey is one way to find out just what its customers really want, when presented with an honest choice: would you rather pay fare A with these restrictions, or fare B with these other restrictions? Would you rather pay fare A, but with these potential fees attached, or fare B, with none of these fees? I say kudos to them.

As for Lisa S – I can assure you that even if the fee structure changes, Southwest will still be very unlike the dinosaurs in many other ways that make it worthwhile (for many) to fly them over the legacy carriers – employee attitude, for one. You mentioned the “great customer service yourself”; I don’t think that’s likely to change even if fares or fees change.

Many people are under the impression that since Southwest doesn’t use a pure hub system, that their non-direct flights are full of takeoffs and landings and plane changes. In my experience, on most non-transcontinental flights, Southwest at most has one change of plane and at most one additional stop–often only one of the two. The total time involved in those stops is seldom longer than a layover at a legacy hub; there’s usually far less stress in changing planes because Southwest will typically have a cluster of gates together in one spot–contrasted with, say, going between entire terminal buildings at IAH-Houston for Continenental, ATL-Atlanta for Delta, DFW-Dallas/FtWorth for American, or ORD-Chicago for United. On top of which, with a legacy carrier, you end up flying backwards against your general route sometimes – try to go to the west coast on Delta from, say, south Louisiana and you’re going to be routed all the way back to Atlanta, layover, then fly back past your starting point to California. That gives the Delta flight at least two hours more of flying time than a “work your way west” Southwest flight, which allows for a lot of Southwest “turnarounds” and still getting you there quickly.

I have to say…if Southwest introduces bag fees anytime in the next few years, I will lose ALL respect for them because they have heavily focused their marketing on “bags fly free.” If they had not chosen to market the lack of bag fees so heavily, I would be disappointed but more understanding.

That said, I think a much more disturbing part of the proposed “New Fare B” is making the ticket non-refundable AND non-reusable. Personally, I find the idea of a ticket being non-reusable even if the flight is cancelled well in advance to be unethical and unconscionable, and though I’ve never had to cancel a flight I commend Southwest for making even their cheap fares reusable. (I have no problem with airlines not wanting to make cheap tickets refundable, but I think not allowing the purchase price to be applied to a future flight in the event of a cancellation amounts to theft). If the “New Fare B” was available at a substantial discount to the “Wanna Get Away” fare, maybe I could understand it. But I would guess that what would actually happen is the “New Fare B” would be available at the price of the “Wanna Get Away” fare, and then the other fares would increase. (And what’s up with the idea of barring those passengers from buying early check-in? You’d think SW would WANT more people to spend $10 on something that is pure profit for them).

I do think one positive thing that no one has mentioned here is making Rapid Rewards credits not expire as long as there’s activity every 24 months. I dislike the current Rapid Rewards program because as someone who doesn’t fly SW often enough to earn a free flight in 2 years, it’s essentially useless to me. (I still joined, just in case, but I don’t expect I’ll ever get anything).

There seems to be a lot of focus on the possibility of a fee for checked baggage – which Southwest has stated they have no plans to charge for. Even if they did at some point start charging for checked baggage – they would only be doing what every other airline is already doing.

What concerned me more was the hint of a change fee, and on top of that, the hint of ticket funds being “not reusable.” The change fee (or lack thereof in Southwest’s case) is what drove me to Southwest for almost all of my domestic travel.

After I traveled a few times with them, and had to change a ticket (when I fully expected and was happy to pay the fare difference), and saw both the attitude of their employees, how great their customer service was, and how easy it was to change flights, reuse credits, the simplicity of earning Rapid Rewards, etc. I was SOLD.

If I exchange a pair of jeans at the store, I expect to pay the price difference, but I don’t expect to pay a fee for a different size. I find the change fee the deal breaker. It’s what, to me, has really made Southwest unique. It’s also turned me away from other airlines in the past. It could do the same with Southwest, but I hope it won’t come to that.

I would also agree that Southwest earned my business equally due to no baggage fees and no change fees! Also, it is great that any residual credit can be used for another traveler, and the name does not have to stay the same. If Christi is reading these posts, please pass along the comments to please do not change the current setup for changing a ticket, as it is one of the best reasons to fly with Southwest and it really sets Southwest apart from the competition.

I just flew on Southwest for the first time and I loved it! I did pay the extra $10 each way for ‘Early Bird’ boarding and I think it was well worth it. It’s amazing how quickly they can turn around a plane.

I was also surprised that they served complimentary soft drinks and juice as well as peanuts/crackers. I know that’s not much, but it’s more than Spirit and US Air do. And there is significantly more leg room.

Free checked bags is a definite plus. They shouldn’t change anything!

To Candice-
As another research professional I have to wonder if they are doing this research to prove to stakeholders that charging baggage fees would enrage customers…So Southwest customers, be vocal and let your opinion be known! That is why companies do research anyway..

For me, the biggest appeal of reserving on Southwest is that they don’t charge a change fee. So I’d much rather see a checked bag fee *if* Southwest “had” to add new fees.

SW is not broken

If their posted losses continue, then that’s a different story.

How many of you that complain about non-reusability buy a movie ticket expecting to be able to see the movie anytime you want? No, you buy the ticket for a specific time on a specific day. If you miss it, then too bad. The prices are different for different times of the day. Would it be fair to buy a matinee ticket and use it for the 8pm showing?
No, you’re not going to pay 30 dollars for a plane ticket and have the flexibility to fly whenever you want. That would be absolute chaos and no airline would be in business with such a model.