Spirit Airlines’ Right to Charge Ancillary Fees

24 hours into the brave new world of carry-on baggage fees...

Posted By:  James S. Craven – August 2, 2010

OK, so I’ll probably lose most of my followers, but here I go anyway…

I understand where Spirit Airlines is coming from with their ancillary fees (including the new carry-on baggage fee) and I agree with them.  OK, so I said it!

Now, I don’t like fees any more than the next guy but I choose to live in a world governed by the “invisible hand” of the free market.  If I don’t like the ancillary fees Spirit Airlines charges, then I can simply “vote with my wallet” and choose another carrier.  There is not a single set of city pairs in which Spirit operates as a monopoly.  I also believe in freedom of choice, and so don’t feel it is in my prerogative to prevent others from flying on a carrier of their choice just because I don’t like the carrier’s revenue model.  And who likes paying for things that they don’t use?  I don’t!  If I’m on a one-day business trip with no luggage, why should I pay the same rate as the guy with two bags on a leisure trip?  If I don’t plan to eat the inedible airline food anyway, why should I pay for it?  Not that there is airline food these days…

So why the great public outcry over Spirit Airlines and their ancillary fees?

I think the push-back is not so much about the fees themselves, but about transparency — the inability to compare one carrier’s bundled airfare (fare + fees) to another’s and the customer’s sense of “bait & switch.”

Since ancillary fees were first added to ticket prices, there have been some improvements.  Consumers have been conditioned to know that the $9.00 advertised fare is far from what they will end up paying for their flight.  Carriers are also doing a better job of stating additional fees on their websites during the booking process, before the customer’s credit card is charged.  This transparency is good, but the process is still too time-consuming when comparison shopping airfares. It is sheer drudgery to determine which carrier offers the best total unbundled fare. What the flying public needs, is an easy way to compare one carrier’s bundled airfare against another’s — a way to compare “apples to apples” quickly and easily.  The GDS, OTA or any company (Google/ITA) that comes up with that “killer app” will surely move market share to their booking site and win praise from the flying public!