The average flyer isn't stupid, after all.
Southwest Airlines has made a name for itself through an ongoing advertising campaign, decrying the checked bag fee. Bags fly free!
They aren't charging their customers extra to bring enough clothes to last for the full ten day vacation. The suits who run the company aren't stupid, either. It's a perk they can afford to offer, and it attracts paying customers to the no-frills flights. A profit can be turned on slim margins if there's volume.
For the rest of the industry, it's been added income to the profit and loss statement. Not as much as they might have calculated, but better than squat. For the Federal Government that has to inspect each and every one of those additional carry-on bags, however, it's been an added expense to a money-losing venture.
Up pops Senator Mary Landrieu of the great state of Louisiana (home of New Orleans and the beignet). She's been watching those Southwest Airlines commercials---Bags Fly Free!---and she's decided that the government should step in and liberate all luggage.
She's proposed new legislation that would ban a fee on the first checked bag.
It's not out of the goodness of her heart. Everyone knows that the airlines would find some other way to recoup their costs, either by raising fares or finding something else to charge extra for.
Therefore, Ms. Landrieu has an alternative plan.Yes, it involves raising taxes.
Airlines could continue to charge for checked bags, but they'd have to kick in to a fund that would help cover the rising expenses incurred by the TSA. When baggage inspection costs to the taxpayers were calculated, no one was figuring on a huge influx of non-checked bags, and with flyers saving money by not checking luggage, the Fed has taken a hit financially.
Either way, the cost of flying will go up. Expenses are passed down to the consumer eventually, because corporations exist to make a profit.
Next time, take the train.
Or you could fly Southwest. Bags Fly Free!
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