Spirit Airlines to charge for carry-on bags

I fly no where. I drive unless my company is paying for the ride. And with this companies are definately going to be re-thinking business travel. They already have enough reimbursements to cover. More power to telecommuting and webex!!!!! I love telecommuting. Been doing it for three years now and it is fantastic. Saves my company tons of cash. The only downside is I tend to work 12 hours a day because I can be so much more productive.

It would have been good if they just stop people from using up more than their fair share of cabin space.

If they are going to charge for “carry on bags”, I wonder who is going to pay for the grouchy stewardesses (and yes, I did use that word).

Maybe it is my imagination but I never seen any airline on this site that has not received some person who swears that they will never use that particular airline again. With all the complaints lodged against practically all of them, I have not seen one go bust so far in the USA.

And this is why I fly Southwest.

Chris,

This might be a dumb question, but as I was sitting here telling my wife about this, she said, do purses and shopping bags (food from airport stands, etc.) count as carry-on? I then posed a far more interesting one — what about diaper bags! If airlines are charging for those, I’m not sure how much more a pleasant experience flights will be…

On another note, why do I have to pay for a bag, when the obese person next to me can take up half of my seat, and not be charged extra because they are protected by the ADA? Oi ve.

Next, they’ll be charging for air…

Sorry for being off topic a bit, but the more posts I read about the sorry state of the airline industry, the more I want to drive.

Although I don’t own RV (like some believe), it is still more fun and relaxing to drive my SUV cross country with a 2 & 5 year old then stepping into an airport and onto a plane.

Chris, looking forward to seeing you out west this summer. The recent picture of the “crossroad” on your other Prime article reminded me of a drive through New Mexico. I will have to tell you about it sometime.

I spoke with a friend who lives in Florida and flys Spirit as well as others. He will no longer use Spirit as he always has a carry on and it effectively raises his cost by $90 per round trip. I don’t fly Spirit and never will.

The simple solution, admittedly difficult since organizing people to protest is difficult, is for no one to fly Spirit for a week. Airlines need daily cash flow. A week with no cash flow would be a problem. Money talks. What we need to a lot of people to write Spirit and let them know. There are numerous other carriers with competitive fares on Spirit’s routes.

I wonder if Spirit, or some consumer group, will actually track boarding and deplaning times to see just how much of a savings in time having the charge in place results in. I’d bet it’s minimal. Plus I’ll bet the wait to get your back at the carousel will now be longer.

What we need is more anger, more outrage, and more vocal objections to the corporate office.

I hate that I’m saying this, because I *never* check baggage and only take hand luggage, but I have to agree with this. It makes much more sense than charging for checked baggage. Boarding times will be faster at least, that’s for sure. Also, airlines never enforce the carry-on size and quanity limits. I have seen people carry-on 4 bags, one of which was nearly normal suitcase-sized. Thus the people boarding last have no room for their carry-ons. You pay for the space you take up in the seat, why not for what you take up in the overhead bins?

Most of you are going to complain about this but in the end, people will still fly Spirit. And guess what, they’ve consitently made money over the last few years using their ultra nickel and diming model.

Shari, sorry to tell you that Rynair has instituted a carry on charge, and also a fee for toilet use -pound about a dollar fifty or a euro . I heard Jet Blue might consider the carry on charge.

John, I love Spirit, but how do you know they have made money. Spirit is a privately held company and as such, they do not have to release their financial. statements.

AND NOW, THEY ARE GOING TO SCREW US with the carry-on. If they get away with it, no doubt other carriers will follow. It is amazing to me that all of you who continue to get screwed, ripped-off and other wise treated like trash, apparently have not been able to see the broader picture of what is happening across the whole breadth and width of mainline commercial aviation. And it’s our own fault for letting it happen.
IF YOU THINK ABOUT all of the many economic categories which constitute the American flying public, a collage starts to emerge in relation to who complains about a given situation and the degree in which they perceive of, or are in fact being cheated and generally treated badly by not only Spirit Air, but also in every single instance of shoddy treatment with every major U.S. air carrier today. Yes, a segment of our society has “Walmart mentality”, but it is certainly small, and most of those folks, I would wager, have very limited resources and of necessity will try to ’save a buck’ when flying is their main, or only, option. Additionally, with todays sorry economy, more and more of us are having to go for the cheapest possible, or not go at all.
GENERALLY, THOUGH, I would think that most of us who fly occasionally are in the majority of, as a guess, 80% of the ‘middle class’ flying public. We fly coach for the most part, try to get the cheapest rate but will pay a bit extra as our situation might benefit, e.g. in my own case, I will fly to Europe this year on Iceland Air, even though it takes longer and is a bit higher priced than a more direct flight with Delta ($850 two years ago, now $1100) because, I try to stay away from the Airbus – “if it ain’t Boeing, I ain’t going” – after having been associated with the aviation industry for close to 50 years, I do not trust the Airbus computerized fly-by-wire system (ironic that so much of our U.S. commercial fleet is European built, even our Coast Guard flies mostly French built and has contracted to re-fleet with Spanish built in 2015). Also, Iceland Air personnel are friendly and efficient and the whole experience is generally more pleasant than with any U.S. air carrier I’ve tried, and that’s most.
THE MAJORITY OF US FLY HERE AND THERE, the kids off to see Grandma, visit family, take the 3 day special to Vegas, vacation to Paris or Bahamas, on occasion, and mostly coach. We endure the misery and necessity of long lines, security check-in, having to now pay for all checked bags, snotty agents, delays, missed connections, lost bags, ill-mannered flight attendants, little food, over priced on-board drinks, stuffy air and cramped seating, and now soon to pay for carry-on, with talk in the air of charging for restroom use – where will it end? And for most of us, it’s not something we do very often, but it’s a large number of us that comprise that 80%, often or not.
SOME OF US TAKE THE TIME to get on these sites, these blogs, and complain about all of the crap that the airlines dump on us. But only SOME of us, most don’t. And those that complain here or on other sites could have just as easily sent an email to their reps in Congress or the Senate. We could form better coalitions for flyers rights. There is http://www.flyersrights.org which focuses mainly on ‘tarmac delays’ and did help in getting voluntary implementation of minimums – a real law not getting passed when it was cut off at the knees by the lobbyists – and in any case reporting and compliance only works with the airlines that wish to provide information for public dissemination. Spirit Air does not participate and is not listed. The main point is, we, the great majority, if we could come together, have the power to initiate laws and regulations and fair treatment policies, past the airline objections and threats of raised fees, past the lobbyists. But we don’t, and we won’t, because we are – too busy, and apathetic. And the airlines and the lobbyists know this. That we are getting screwed, we have only ourselves to blame.
SO, WHILE WE CONTINUE TO WHINE and moan on blog sites and to individual airlines, to no avail, the airlines will continue to pull us around by the short hairs. And make no mistake, no matter how short your short hairs are, they will get you anyway, sooner or later, more and more. Now, with Spirit Air charging for carry-on, it is just one more step in the passenger airlines march towards making air travel even more of an expensive and miserable mode of travel than it now is, and, they don’t give a hoot – that is, for most of us, but not all of us…
FIRST CLASS DON’T WHINE. Not on these sites in any case. If you take a good look around, as I have, read all of the various complaints about almost every U.S. air carrier, you will not be able to identify a single complaint coming from someone who flew business or first class. Especially first class. Now, of course those who can afford to travel first class get a much nicer deal – broad seats, tons of leg room, no charge for food, drinks, pillows & blankets etc., etc., and as well they should for 200 to 300% more than coach class for a ticket. More power to those who can afford it, you get what you pay for and all that. And while this inflated cost must also include an unwritten offer of ‘better treatment’, does that translate into extra deference and pointed individual respect? Of course it does, money talks and those who can afford it are assumed to be not only IN first class, but also OF first class – they must be better people than the cattle in the back. Ever heard of “asmallworld.net”?
I DON’T WANT TO SOUND LIKE A SOCIALIST, but if you can afford to pay $3700 instead of $1100 for the same flight, then I think you could afford to sue the hell out of an airline if they mistreated you, not to mention how a given wealthy/celebrity/influential individual could affect how poor publicity might come to bear on this. So no matter how hard you look, you won’t find a First Class complaint posting on any of these sites. Consequently, and unfortunately the conclusion we can take from this is, First Class passengers posses inherent ad hoc rights bestowed by the airline on the basis of real or supposed wealth and/or individual importance – and not to be confused with the extra amenities of their surroundings, IT’S PERSONAL. The unfortunate part of this is that those of us in Coach Class are generally assumed to be of Low Class, as least financially, and therefore cannot assume to receive more than a semblance of deference or personal respect as compared to those in First Class.
BEYOND BASIC FEDERAL REGULATIONS, those who fly Coach Class HAVE NO RIGHTS. Take the example of the flight attendant screaming at a mother because her child made too much noise, or hollering at the owner of a dog because it barked once. Think that would happen it they were in First Class? Not on your life. From the moment you step up to the counter to buy a basic Coach Class ticket you are assumed to be in a class not worthy of any more than basic tolerance, bordering intolerance. You do not have enough money and are not important enough to pose a threat due to any airline impositions you may incur. Are the airlines and their personnel deliberately mean, nasty and rude with Coach Class travelers? No, of course not, but in relation to First Class, they don’t really care all that much, and it happens all too often. Remembering, that beyond the basic rules and regulations of the Government, YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS, and very little if any recourse when being treated badly on a personal basis.
FEAR, THE AIRLINE TRUMP CARD, and we all know it’s there, hovering around us, and if played by some dirt bag flight attendant, big trouble. They can scream at us, ignore us, say rude and unpleasant things, with almost total impunity. But try screaming back at them, try ‘making a fuss’, even if you’re in the right, and you risk being labeled an ‘unruly passenger’ a ‘trouble maker’, with the possibility of getting kicked off the plane and having to answer to the police, or worse, the dreaded Homeland Security. These glorified ‘attendants’ posses way too much power, and they know it. In Coach Class you are automatically considered dirt if you come into any kind of confrontation, automatically, by the attendant and by the authorities. And, counting on your fellow passengers to back you up is a no-starter, we are all under the power of the FEAR FACTOR and I’d be very surprised if a witness would have the courage to step forward to back-up any wrong done to a fellow passenger. If you are in coach, then you do not have any power. YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS!
THE STINKING WEALTHY will continue to fly First Class and don’t give a damn about those in Coach – and it’s true, they do not want your lower class carry-on touching their Gucci. The filthy stinking rich 2% usually fly on private jets, and in any case care even less. Inequities, mistreatment, rudeness and underhanded ploys to skin an extra buck from Coach Class by the airlines will continue and intensify, without opposition it would seem. Do not doubt, that while the whole real scenario of the airlines seeing us as just a bunch of low-life cattle will never get written in company policy, it is, and we are, in any case, talked about in precisely those terms of derision, behind closed doors.
U.S. AIRLINE COMPANIES ARE OUT OF CONTROL, and it’s only going to get worse. No one seems ready to stop them from simply taking the middle class occasional flyer to the cleaners, ‘dollar-ing’ us to the breaking point. The executives continue to receive huge bonuses and hefty bail-out packages and the wealthy just go, ‘ho-hum’. So, all of you Coach Class hobo’s can just bite the bullet if you can’t find a way to coalesce in a way that might generate a realistic and comprehensive flyers bill of rights – or, you could try to save up for a First Class ticket. Vent your anger and frustration on blogs and sites such as this if it makes you feel better, but it doesn’t count for spit.

@Chris, it is a long unfortunate story, but I agree that your readers might be interested in reading about it. The kids have been hinting that they are in need of a quick trip to Disney. Once we settle on a date, we could stop by and see you since you live so close to the Mouse.

I agree that our kids would have fun together.

Bobberman , the infant and his mother were removed from Southwest because despite several attempts by numerous flight attendants to calm the infant down, the required flight announcement could not be heard. The parent was financially rewarded and later flown to her destination. That flight attendant backed by her captain was a very brave person knowing the parent complaints that would follow her decision. Also yoursocialist attitude is a bit passe.

@ Barbie – You won’t find me flying on Ryan Air. I walk the walk – I refuse to support businesses that take practices too far. I don’t fly on airlines that have outrageous policies, I don’t fill up at gas stations that charge me to use a credit card, I avoid hotels that have poor service and ridiculous surcharges. It’s not ok, and they’re not going to be rewarded by me for doing something they shouldn’t be doing.

@ Carver – I’m sure you and I will disagree with this, but from my point of view, there are a number of basic things that should be included in the price of my ticket – a basic level of decency and politeness, an expectation to arrive safely, the ability to use the restroom, the availability of water/liquid, and a suitcase. I don’t travel naked, do you? Do you buy everything at your destination? On your business trip, can you fit everything that you need in one bag, including your laptop, change(s) of clothing, toiletries, chargers for your cell phone and laptop, etc? For a long time, many people here on the board have been saying that one carry on and one personal item are all that we travelers should need. Take away the carry on and what do you have? You have your laptop case. Your purse. Maybe your backpack. Nothing large. *That’s* what a personal item is. Of course people can pack some clothes and toiletries, but it’s looney to expect that everything that one needs is going to fit in a personal item, and it’s unrealistic to say “Oh, clothes aren’t a basic need, you shouldn’t expect to be able to carry on a bag.” Perhaps thinking that clothes aren’t needed isn’t unethical, but it’s certainly on a slippery slope, and the next step, charging for toilets or water, *is* unethical, especially on longer flights.