Continental to Charge $15 for First Checked Bag

[Matt Molnar]

Continental has joined the ranks of airlines charging passengers to check a bag. Applies to all flights in the US, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and Canada beginning Oct. 7th.

First and biz class, elites, full economy fares and military personnel are exempt.

[USAF Pilot 07]

Gotta love the new Southwest commercial poking fun at all these airlines charging for bags....

[bonanzabucks]

Out of all the airlines, I would have least expected them to do it. Sign of the times, I guess.

[LGA777]

Two points I want to make here. One is while CO doing this is still a lot less nickel and diming than what whe are doing at US I am pretty sure I read about a month ago that CO said they where NOT going to join other carriers in doing this, I guess they changed their mind? Of the different ala carte pricing charges at various airlines I have read while all add revenue to help offset the fuel costs the charge to check a bag is by FAR the biggest source of new revenue, if one thing where to stick if fuel keeps going down and staying down long term then it's charging to check bags.

Point Number 2

"Gotta love the new Southwest commercial poking fun at all these airlines charging for bags...".

I find it ironic that one would think WN would have the most to gain as far as new revenue from frustrated passengers from airlines charging all these new fees that many would defect to WN but it seems the opposite has happened.

Most of the majors had record load factors for Aug 08. At US we had a record Aug 08 LF of 85.8 or almost 86 pct. But WN, which had an Aug 07 LF of 80 pct declined over 5 pct for an Aug 08 LF of ONLY 74.4 pct. I guess not so many are leaving US (and others) to go to WN despite all the new fee's after all, keep in mind Aug 08 was the first month of US charging for all beverages.

Regards

LGA777

[Matt Molnar]

Most of the majors had record load factors for Aug 08. At US we had a record Aug 08 LF of 85.8 or almost 86 pct. But WN, which had an Aug 07 LF of 80 pct declined over 5 pct for an Aug 08 LF of ONLY 74.4 pct. I guess not so many are leaving US (and others) to go to WN despite all the new fee's after all, keep in mind Aug 08 was the first month of US charging for all beverages.

Those are some very interesting numbers, and I know US has been successful in improving many aspects of their operation, such as on-time performance, but I feel like there's something more to it. Whether they deserve it or not, the legacies, especially US, have taken an awful beating in the press and in the public eye over the past couple years over their new nickel-and-dime fees and some well publicized lapses in customer service. Southwest, on the other hand, has gotten through it without many scratches, and generally gets very high marks for service. I haven't done any research on this, but one possible reason for this that comes to mind is that WN serves some very unique markets, markets out west where the population might be suffering from the slow economy a bit more than the primary and secondary city pairs served by US East. Traffic to the New Yorks and Bostons and Chicagos will always be high, but people considering flying from Kansas City to Wichita for their family reunion might just skip it this year.

Just a thought, not trying to diss US at all.