First airline to charge for carry-on bags

[Bangkoktraveler]

Ryan Air have always taken the piss with their add ons but now they want to charge you to do it.

 

Having a BMI of 20.6 which places me in the "Normal weight" Catagory I would prefer to see extras charged to overweight (BMI 25-25.99) and Obese (BMI 30+) passengers, its all payload.

 

 

 

Does that mean skinny Thai girls will fly fo half price?

[allistar]

I can see the day that overweight passengers will flock to the steam rooms the day before check in (like fighters trying to make a weight limit).

[Redbaron]

if you ran to the loo on ryanair, whilst covering your mouth, eyes bulging, ready to chunder... i'm tipping they'd let you in for free

[Julian2]

I was about to suggest that the air sickness bags could become multi-purpose anyway.

[The_Munchmaster]

Old Article saying that they are considering it, but now its official.

 

Ryanair is taking no-frills flights to new heights - by charging for lavatories.

 

All onboard toilets will become coin-operated, forcing passengers to pay £1 or one euro...

I heard on the radio this morning that it will only apply to flights of less than 1 hour duration. Also Boeing have still to develop the coin operated lock for them so presumably it won't start for a while yet?

[gobbledonk]

Aah, wont folk with young kiddies love having to pay a quid every time their little darling wants to go to the crapper ? Might dissuade them from flying entirely - mission accomplished, IMO !

[TroyinEwa/Perv]

Mission accomplished??? To dissuade families from flying? Oh my fucken god. You are delusioned. Quite the opposite. Maybe your post was sarcasm and I missed it, which I do regularly.

[buffalo_bill]

I do not think it is a serious approach , ryanair have always been masters in free PR at whatever cost , they have nothing to loose anyway . You cannot simply add seats to an aircraft , the total number still has to fit into the seat/emergency exit/flight attendants - ratio .

[chelseafan]

Nope but one of their plans was to remove seats and have people standing for short-haul flights

[Julian2]

Travellers' Check

 

Just when you think you have it nailed down in your mind what low-cost air travel involves - what you trade off to get the cheap seat, the grudging acknowledgement from the carriers that, if you break one of their rules, you will be price-gouged for extras - the goalposts move again.

 

About two years ago, Jetstar led the way in charging for check-in baggage for the first time. Of course, like most, low-cost airlines, it found it difficult to unbundle its hype and tell the truth: passengers, it said, would be offered a discount if they did not check-in any baggage.

 

This would save the airline money by speeding up aircraft turnarounds and allowing the airline to charge for the cargo space that would be freed up.

 

But that was not enough, the industry is now telling us. They're going to charge even for the hand luggage you agreed to take instead of heavy bags to make life easier for the airline.

 

The question is: is this one price-gouge too many?

 

 

 

Away from its customers, Tiger Airways is already bragging to the industry that it is one of the best price-gougers in the business. At the airline's half-year briefing last month, chief executive Tony Davis said Tiger already earned more of its revenue (20 per cent) from so-called ancillary charges than any other and wanted to increase that to 25 per cent.

 

Now the airline's Australian management is joining in.

 

"We continue to listen and respond to our customers, who tell us they want the absolute lowest airfare and they don't want their fare to subsidise someone else's lunch or extra baggage," Tiger Australia commercial director Steve Burns said when he was questioned about US low-cost carrier Spirit's introduction of fees of up to $US45 for carry-on baggage that requires stowage in overhead bins (no charge if it will fit under your seat).

 

"If you use less, you should pay less."

 

Jetstar and Virgin Blue have rejected the move - for now. But that means they'll watch and see how Tiger goes if it introduces carry-on baggage fees.

 

Meanwhile, Europe's Ryanair says it will go ahead and put coin-activated locks on its in-flight toilets so people will have to pay to use them.

 

Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary even says he wants to take out most toilets and replace them with even more seats, although that is probably an April Fools Day joke, as former Sydney Morning Herald aviation writer Ben Sandilands has explained.

 

I think this aggressive new round of price-gouging is likely to cause a customer backlash. But it doesn't matter what I think. The airlines need to know whether it will be accepted by punters, if they're given the Tiger spin that Steve Burns repeats above.

 

So this can be the first referendum on the subject. If you've already used Tiger, are you happy to travel without any type of stowable luggage in exchange for the cheapest fare? Are pay toilets fair enough or would it make you reconsider your travel decision?

http://blogs.theage.com.au/travel/travellerscheck/2010/04/12/justwhenyout.html