It was almost inevitable that some airline was going to do it sooner or later: Spirit Airlines is going to start charging passengers for carry-on baggage - up to $45 each way. (Purses, computer bags, diaper bags and other items that fit under the seat in front of you will still be free.)
Spirit already charges between $15-45 for checking bags domestically and $20-45 for international flights.
That really is the last straw for nickel-and-diming airline customers to death. "Sure, come fly us, but don't bring any clothes with you, or we'll nail you for it." I can understand the idea of charging for overweight bags or second bags, to discourage people from overpacking - and thus save on fuel charges.
But really, if you want to get $40-80 more out of each customer per flight... just charge more for the tickets to begin with. These new charges are bad for two reasons: first, Spirit is going to alienate customers. (And they're not that big of an airline to begin with.)
If it's an issue about things like people continuing to attempt to bring too many/too large bags into the main cabin: charge them $25 to carry on, but $10 to check the bag - most people will opt for the cheaper option. (But then make sure you improve your successful baggage arrival percentage, or people will complain they had to pay to ship their bag, but it got lost.)
Two: other airlines are keeping an eye on Spirit to see how successful they are with this new fee. If Spirit doesn't suffer from customer backlash on this, expect the big boys to start rolling out similar fees. And you can bet that those with frequent flyer status won't have to pay these fees, which means, once again, that the less-frequently-traveling customers are the ones being hit up to prop up the companies' bottom lines, instead of the travelers who make up 70% of airlines' business.
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