After years of being a rare holdout, JetBlue Airways Corp. Tuesday joined most of the rest of the U.S. airline industry in imposing a fee for checked bags on newly booked flights: $25 per bag, $20 if you check in online or at a kiosk.
The move leaves Southwest as the last U.S. airline without a bag fee, and came as well short of a happy change for those used to “Happy Jetting.”
“Everything costs enough,’’ said Sylvia Kimball of Portsmouth, N.H., returning home through Logan International Airport in Boston. “They're nickel-and-diming us to death on these flights.’’
For Tamara Calderon of Leominster, Mass., free bags were a reason to fly JetBlue – and charged bags just might be a reason to switch. “Customers fly with JetBlue – I was definitely one of those customers – because of the free luggage. You start charging, I'm going to go somewhere else for sure.’’
JetBlue was aware, of course, that U.S. airlines now collectively gross $3.5 billion a year from baggage-handling fees, which accounts to close to one-third of all industry profits. And investors loved the move, bidding up JetBlue shares 2.8 percent on a day when the overall markets were up only 0.1 percent.
Travel expert Melisse Hinkle of CheapFlights.com in Boston said it’s important for consumers not to overreact, and to also look carefully at the full set of changes JetBlue is – and isn’t – making.
“They're still offering free snacks. They're still offering DirecTV,’’ Hinkle said. As part of the same set of changes that includes the $25 bag fee, the airline is also offering a new “BluePlus” level of fares that are typically about $15 per trip higher, but let you check a bag for free and also cut the “change fee” for switching an itinerary.
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“If you know you're not going to check a bag, then maybe that base fare is for you,’’ Hinkle said. “But if you are going to check a bag, then you can look at you know where the value differential is, what other perks you will get if you go up that fare class … You just need to look at what is best for you and then tailor your purchasing based on your needs.’’
Of course, at the last major airline offering free bags, “Bags fly free” is still a very powerful sales message.
“If you get a whole big family that has to pay $30 a bag, it really adds up,’’ said Rita Tate of Oklahoma City, Okla., minutes after arriving in Boston for a vacation. “It’s the difference in who we choose for airlines … We try to get on Southwest because of that.’’
We asked Southwest if they might ever join the rest of the industry in charging. Spokesman Brian Parrish wrote back: “Customers continually tell us they love our ‘Bags Fly Free’ feature, and we have no current plans to begin charging fees for the first two pieces of checked luggage.’’
