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Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Seriously....

Allegiant Air starts charging for use of overhead bins

By Ben Mutzabaugh, USA TODAY

LAS VEGAS – Starting Wednesday, Allegiant Air is charging passengers up to $35 to stow carry-on bags in its overhead storage bins.
Allegiant's new policy, which doesn't apply to tickets booked before Wednesday, means passengers cannot avoid paying the airline a fee for their bags unless all their belongings can fit into a small "personal item" bag that can fit under the seat in front of them.
Allegiant charges a fee for checked luggage: $35 if done at the airport or $15 to $30 if the fee is paid online, depending on the route.
The Las Vegas-based airline is the second U.S. carrier to charge fliers for carry-on bags that have to be stored in bins during flights.  Read More

I've never flown Allegiant, their schedules just don't jive with how I travel. I understand that they offer amazingly low prices on tickets....possibly the reason they've decided to charge you to place your bag in the overhead bin.
I really don't get this whole "Baggage Charge" thing. A few years ago they started charging to check baggage, at first they told us it was because jet fuel was getting so expensive that this charge was there to help offset the cost increase...so everyone and I mean everyone started carrying on every piece of luggage they could to avoid this charge. In my small mind I'm thinking OK, the jet fuel cost I understand that so why only charge if the bag is checked? If the bag is carried on it's still on the plane, the plane still weighs the same, it still uses the same amount of that expensive jet fuel, so it really didn't make much sense to me.....now airlines are starting to charge for that valuable overhead bin space...before you know it Aunt Sue will be sitting next to me trying to cram her purse, her laptop bag and her carry-on underneath the seat in front of her....Ughhhh
So in my small pea-brained non MBA mind I would think if you got one of those bean counters to do some sort of a math equation they could determine the number passengers then figure out how many bags are being checked then figure out the fuel cost...etc, etc, and throw these numbers into so Excel macro and come out with a figure to raise each ticket price by thus allowing everyone to do whatever the hell they want with their bags...who knows the airlines might even make a few more dollars than they are with their current policy....who knows.

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