JetBlue joins the nickel-and-diming game
Ryanair has also come up with a new twist in baggage fees
And just when I thought I’d written my last column on airline fees for a while, two major players have come out with new ways to leach money from customers.
The most disappointing new charges come from JetBlue (et tu?!?), which once was a champion of flyers’ rights — at least compared to its competitors.
The “little airline that could” made its reputation for consumer friendliness by being the first to create seatback TVs, by increasing the width of those seats and, most importantly, by eschewing extra fees.
Then it went public, and it seems the pressures from stockholders are pushing the airline into the same kind of nickel-anddiming of passengers that created windfalls for such legacy carriers as United, Delta and American.
Now JetBlue has the highest baggage fees in the industry, announcing in late August that it would be increasing the cost of a first checked bag from $25 to $30, and the second bag from just $5 to a whopping $40. It also has upped the cap on change fees from $150 to $200.
Across the Atlantic, fee-happy Ryanair has come up with a new twist.
From November on, it won’t look at only the size of your carryon bag to determine whether it can be placed for free in an overhead bin in the cabin. Starting in just a few months, any bag with wheels, no matter how diminutive, will have to be checked.
The airline is trying to take the sting out of the announcement by announcing a smaller bagcheck fee for these smaller bags, but most aren’t fooled. This is just another way to knock off more of travellers’ vacation budgets.
Attention must be paid because, unless consumers react negatively, these new and increased fees will spread like kudzu throughout the industry.
So what should we do, fellow wanderers? I, for one, am going to do my darndest to avoid JetBlue and Ryanair in the coming months. I hope you’ll join me.
Airline execs are watching, and if these new fees are greeted with just a yawn, rest assured that we’ll soon see them on every flight in the market.
Note to the reader: Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip. The information in this column was accurate when it was released, but prices are competitive, sometimes limited and can always change without notice.
Pauline Frommer is the Editorial Director for the Frommer Travel Guides and Frommers.com. She co-hosts the radio program The Travel Show with her father, Arthur Frommer, and is the author of the best-selling Frommer’s EasyGuide to New York City.