checked bags Archives - TravelSkills

Shipping your luggage is shockingly expensive

November 26, 2016

Baggage fees mean Southwest prices are usually lowest--unless you carry everything on. (Image: Jim Glab)

Paying airline fee for checking bags might be your cheapest option. (Image: Jim Glab)

Most frequent travelers reading this rarely check bags when on the road for business– and if they do, fees are likely waived due to elite status or credit card.

But for holiday trips home, bag contents frequently expand to include winter coats, formal wear, gifts and plenty of other extraneous items– especially if kids are involved.

Shipping bags via FEDEX or UPS sounds like a great idea until you look at rates. Shipping luggage is not cheap– or fast. To get rates that come close airline fees, you must ship via ground which can take three or five days to get across the country. And distance makes a big difference when it comes to rates. Plus there’s the time cost of schlepping bags to a FEDEX or UPS facility.

To test this, I checked with FEDEX to determine how much it would cost to ship a standard carry on-sized piece of luggage (10″x 14″x 22″) weighing 25 lbs. from a FEDEX store in Atlanta to New York City, Boulder, Colo. and San Francisco.

Then I compared it to airline baggage fees.

Regional- Atlanta to New York City:

$185 each way – Standard overnight delivery

$90 each way – Two-day delivery

$30 each way — end of second day home delivery

$27 airline checked bag fee (each way)

Long distance- Atlanta to Boulder, Colo.:

$198 each way – Standard overnight delivery

$132 each way – Two-day delivery

$33 each way – Three-day (ground) home delivery

$25 airline checked bag fee (each way)

Transcon- Atlanta to San Francisco:

$200 each way – Standard overnight delivery

$145 each way – Two-day delivery

$40 each way- End of fourth day (ground) delivery

$25 airline checked bag fee (each way)

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Since major airlines charge $25 for the first checked bag (except Southwest) and $35 for the second would you pay to ship your bag, or just check it with the airline and hope for the best?

Please leave your comments below.

For me? I learned long ago how to live out of a carry on! If on the rare occasion I have to check a bag, the fee would likely be waived due to my elite status.

What about you?

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Is Southwest really a low fare carrier? Depends on…

October 18, 2016

Competitors’ baggage fees mean Southwest’s prices are usually lowest–unless you carry everything on. (Image: Jim Glab)

How often will you be able to find a domestic airline flight that is cheaper than low-cost Southwest? According to a new study, the answer depends on whether or not you check a bag.

You might recall that Southwest has clung tenaciously to its longstanding policy of allowing its passengers to check up to two bags for free – putting it at odds with its competitors (and with the wishes of Wall Street analysts, who would like Southwest to get in line with the industry in order to boost its fee revenues).

Topaz International, which specializes in travel expense auditing, has come out with a new study that found Southwest’s reputation as the lowest-priced option doesn’t really hold up for many business trips – although it is doing better than it was four years ago.

But it is generally the better deal for most leisure travelers. And what’s the difference? Checked bags.

Topaz studied base fares plus bag fees in 97 domestic air travel markets, looking at comparable flights offered by Southwest, American, Delta, United, Alaska, JetBlue, Frontier, Spirit, and Virgin America.

Southwest Airlines’ reputation as the lowest cost carrier depends on your baggage situation.(Photo: Chris McGinnis)

“Most business travelers that Topaz International has spoken to and interacted with during our 35 years of travel consulting are more likely to carry on their luggage in an effort to speed up their trip and get both to their destination and home when completed,” Topaz said. “In this case, while Southwest Airlines can be the lowest cost alternative, 45 percent of the time they are not.”

But adding in the fees for two checked bags means Southwest is almost always the lowest-priced option. In that case, “Only 13 percent of the other airlines’ fares were lower than Southwest Airlines, slightly up from 12 percent in 2012. In fact, they were higher 87 percent of the time.”

Still, Southwest appears to be making progress even with business travelers. While competitors beat Southwest’s fares 45 percent of the time in this year’s study when no checked bags were involved, that’s a drop from 60 percent in the firm’s 2012 study.

You can download a copy of the new study here.

Do you fly Southwest much? Do you check bags when traveling on business? Please leave your comments below.

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Airline Briefs: AA bags, Alaska miles, Delta PJs, Virgin courses

March 17, 2016

American will reduce the free checked bag allowance for some premium passengefr. (Image: American)

American will reduce the free checked bag allowance for some premium passengers. (Image: American)

In airline news briefs this week, American will change its checked-bag policy for premium travelers; Alaska makes a mileage program commitment; Delta expands its offering of front-cabin loungewear, and Virgin America will help business travelers learn while they fly.

American Airlines tells Travelskills that the company is changing its free checked bag policies for passengers in its premium cabins, effective for tickets bought March 29 or later, in an effort to bring American “in line with our U.S. competitors.” Instead of the current three free checked bags, AA will only allow two free checked bags in two-cabin aircraft, including domestic First Class and international Business Class. The change will not apply to AAdvantage Executive Platinums, who will still get three bags free, as will First Class passengers on three-cabin international flights.

While other big U.S. airlines have changed their loyalty programs over to spending-based instead of mileage-based models (or are planning to, like American), Alaska Airlines says it will not – at least, not in the immediate future Speaking at a JP Morgan investment conference this week, Alaska chief financial officer Brandon Pederson said that the airline will be “sticking with the traditional model” for its Mileage Plan program. But he added that he “wouldn’t say we would never go to that (a spending-based model).”

Delta’ just upped its game when it comes to inflight slumber (Image: Delta)

In December, Delta started offering a new amenity to passengers flying in its Delta One cabins from Los Angeles to Sydney and Shanghai – in-flight sleepwear/loungewear that they can change into to keep their clothes from getting wrinkled. And now Delta has expanded that perk. The light-gray PJs are now being offered to Delta One customers on flights from Seattle to Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong; and from Detroit to Shanghai and Beijing. They come in small/medium or large/extra large, and passengers can take them home after their flight.

The popular networking service LinkedIn is teaming up with Virgin America to offer free streaming in-flight video tutorials to passengers. Starting next month, Virgin customers will be able to watch business-oriented videos produced by Lynda.com, a company that LinkedIn purchased for $1.5 billion. Available through the airline’s in-fight entertainment system, the videos cover topics like Getting Things Done, Creating Great Workplace Habits, and Managing Stress.

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Southwest says it again

July 29, 2015

A Southwest Airlines 738 in new livery takes of from Midland, Texas (Photo: Felipe Garcia / Flickr)

And then there was one: Southwest is standing by its free checked bag policy. (Photo: Felipe Garcia / Flickr)

Every once in a while, reporters or Wall Street analysts will ask Southwest Airlines officials if they plan to keep their policy of allowing two free checked bags in the face of an industry-wide trend toward more and more fees. That happened again at a business travel conference in Florida this week.

The question is especially relevant now in view of JetBlue’s recent changeover to a new fare structure that no longer allows a free checked bag for all passengers, leaving Southwest as the industry’s sole remaining outlier on the issue… and in view of Wall Street’s unrelenting pressure on Southwest to pile on the fees like everybody else in order to strengthen its bottom line.

But Southwest’s answer was the same as before: Chief Executive Gary Kelly said there are no plans to charge for checked luggage. Southwest has long maintained that while its two-free-bags policy (and its no-change-fee policy) deprives it of considerable fee revenues, that is more than made up for by the added customers it brings in.

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And in view of the airline’s financial performance, it’s hard to argue the point. Southwest last week reported that its $691 million net income in the second quarter was an all-time record — and its ninth consecutive quarter of record profits.

Southwest said that its passenger load factor also hit a new record for the quarter, at 84.6 percent. While its major competitors continue to keep a lid on capacity expansion, Southwest said its second quarter capacity grew by seven percent year-over-year.

The airline’s most dramatic growth is coming at Dallas Love Field thanks to the end of Wright Amendment restrictions there, which allowed Southwest to add a number of new longer-haul routes. And it is growing at Houston Hobby as well, where its focus is on international routes; it plans to add eight of them there this year.

Readers: Do you think Southwest should stick with its two-free-bags policy, or throw in the towel?

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