American to charge for FIRST checked bag.

[BDBopper]

If you are going to nickel and dime me raise the price of the ticket instead. I bet they'd get more money that way. If you are going to charge for checked luggage than less people are going to check luggage and pay the fee to check it. They will do anything possible to get around it. If you increase the fare 15 bucks than you will be getting more money outright, even from the people who are not checking their luggage plus you are being honest and upfront.

No wonder more people are taking the bus on trips instead of a plane. They don't nickel and dime you there. It may take longer but in most cases it is cheaper to take the bus than it is to fly.

[Morrigoon]

Originally Posted by BDBopper

If you are going to nickel and dime me raise the price of the ticket instead. I bet they'd get more money that way. If you are going to charge for checked luggage than less people are going to check luggage and pay the fee to check it. They will do anything possible to get around it. If you increase the fare 15 bucks than you will be getting more money outright, even from the people who are not checking their luggage plus you are being honest and upfront.

No wonder more people are taking the bus on trips instead of a plane. They don't nickel and dime you there. It may take longer but in most cases it is cheaper to take the bus than it is to fly.

But the airlines can do it anyway because there are a lot of people who would rather die than take a bus.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by Morrigoon

But the airlines can do it anyway because there are a lot of people who would rather die than take a bus.

I disagree. The airlines are fiercely price competitive. They are engaged of a battle to the death at the moment. It is very difficult for any one of them to try to raise their prices on a particular route (see Alex's post above). There is no oligopoly here: there is definitely market driven pricing going on. Since the airlines cannot increase the published fare price, they have to find other ways of generating revenue.

Besides, you can't take a bus to Hawaii

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by BDBopper

If you are going to nickel and dime me raise the price of the ticket instead. I bet they'd get more money that way. If you are going to charge for checked luggage than less people are going to check luggage and pay the fee to check it. They will do anything possible to get around it. If you increase the fare 15 bucks than you will be getting more money outright, even from the people who are not checking their luggage plus you are being honest and upfront.

Except that, as Alex rightly pointed out, people buy the cheapest ticket they see. Period. So if your ticket is $15 more than your competitor's, you're going to get fewer people on that plane and it won't matter that the ones that are on there are paying $15 more. They'd rather have 300 people, 50 of which pay $15 less because they didn't check a bag, than have only 200 people, each paying $15 more.