American Airlines is coming off a bit as a heavy as it reportedly charged an active duty U.S. soldier $50 in overweight fees because his duffel bag was 14 pounds over the limit.
Report — American Airlines charges Iraq-bound soldier a fee for overweight duffel bag
June 17, 2010 By 4 Comments
Southwest Airlines tops Continental, United, Northwest in ancillary-fee revenue
May 3, 2010 By 27 Comments
First bags fly free at Southwest Airlines but the low cost carrier collected more ancillary-fee revenue in the fourth quarter than did Northwest, United, Continental, AirTran, JetBlue and Alaska Airlines.
Alaska Airlines taketh and giveth
April 22, 2010 By 3 Comments
Alaska Airlines and sister carrier Horizon Air increased their fees for first-checked bags to $20, from $15, but also knocked five minutes off their baggage-service guarantee.
Advertisement
Passengers railing about airline fees? Amtrak on record ridership pace
April 8, 2010 By 2 Comments
The news that Spirit Airlines will charge up to $45 for a carry-on bag, that American Airlines will take $8 for a pillow and blanket, and that Ryanair is toying with toilet fees, may not be unwelcome news at U.S. rail line Amtrak, which announced today that its ridership numbers for the first six months of fiscal year 2010 were up 4.3% and on pace to establish a new annual record.
JetBlue braces for wild weekend with Sabre cutover, works on onboard food sales
January 28, 2010 By 4 Comments
This upcoming weekend will be a really big one for JetBlue because it expects a degree of disruption and delays as it transitions its internal reservations systems from Navitaire to SabreSonic Customer Sales & Service.
Southwest Airline’s Kelly calls on competitors to increase bag fees
January 21, 2010 By 3 Comments
Southwest Airlines chairman and CEO Gary Kelly says he’d welcome the prospect of other airlines stepping up their bag-fee increases because they have provided impetus to Southwest’s market-share gains.
“Let them charge $100 for bags,” Kelly says. “We’ll have 100% load factors.”
Speaking to analysts Jan. 21 after the airline recorded $116 million in profits for the fourth quarter, Kelly notes that overall the U.S. domestic airline market is not growing, yet Southwest picked up 1% in market share, which he labels “huge,” on increased passenger traffic despite a capacity cut of 8%.
Advertisement
Delta, Continental raise bag fees, will Southwest and JetBlue pack it in?
January 12, 2010 By 7 Comments
Delta Air Lines and Continental Airlines both raised their fees for first and second checked bags to $25 and $35, respectively, while offering discounts of a sort to travelers who check in online.
Other airlines may soon be matching or raising fees.
With all of the inconvenience that travelers went through post-Christmas after the Northwest Airlines terrorism incident, the bag fee hikes add insult to injury, so to speak. And, that’s especially true since there have been restrictions on, and more inspections of, carry-on luggage.
Delta Air Lines: The U.S. king of ancillary revenue
December 21, 2009 By 14 Comments
U.S. airlines took in some $2 billion in fees for ancillary services in the third quarter, a 36.4% increase over the same period in 2008, and Delta Air Lines clearly was the most aggressive carrier in its fee-collection activities.
The details, from a report by the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, show that Delta’s ancillary revenue efforts, which brought in $447.5 million, had no serious competition. American Airlines came in second at $261.2 million for the quarter.
Plus, when you take into account that merged airlines Delta and Northwest Airlines reported their numbers separately, then their combined $670.8 million in ancillary-fee revenue stands out as even more impressive — or notorious, depending on your perspective.
JetBlue could charge bag fee once Sabre’s on-board
October 26, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Southwest Airlines makes much out of its Bags Fly Free campaign, but JetBlue, which doesn’t charge for the first bag, is relatively silent on the topic.
One reason for JetBlue’s lack of marketing about its baggage policy is that it may not make sense to tout a policy which you soon could abandon.
JetBlue President and CEO David Barger told financial analysts last week that the airline is almost in “lock-down” mode at the moment when it comes to introducing new products to boost ancillary-services revenue because the carrier is in the process of switching from Navitaire to Sabre as its internal reservations-system provider, and the transition is slated to be completed in the first quarter of 2010.
Southwest Airlines more myth-maker than maverick on ancillary services
October 15, 2009 By 3 Comments
Southwest Airlines gets a lot of love for its Bags Fly Free Campaign. which enables travelers to check two bags for free.
Here’s the Southwest marketing message: “While bag fees have become the norm amongst our competitors, we don’t believe in springing unpleasant surprises on our Customers. Staying true to our reputation as the maverick of the airline industry, this is just another way that we dare to be different.”
But, actually the airline is more myth-maker than maverick in some respects because it is busy strategizing about optimal ways of attracting ancillary-services revenue in a host of other areas.
