Pledge on Carry-On Fees
Senator Charles Schumer has obtained “commitments” to not charge fees for carry-on luggage from several major legacy airlines. Read HERE for the entire story.
There are a couple of things I notice. First and foremost is that each airline making the commitment (American Airlines, jetBlue, Delta Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways) each have significant operations at La Guardia or JFK Airports (or both.) Airports in the state of New York and both of which are within Senator Schumer’s power base.
Also notable is that Continental has been quiet. Continental’s operations for NYC are concentrated at Newark Airport located in New Jersey. Well, I also suspect that new Continental CEO Jeff Smisek is sensible enough to ignore the Senator.
Of course they made the commitment. It doesn’t fit within their business model and is impractical for them to try. It costs them nothing to make the commitment and get their name in the news much as Spirit has had theirs in the news since making the announcement that they would charge carry-on fees.
The only people benefitting from Senator Schumer’s diatribes is Spirit Airlines. I leave Senator Schumer out of that equation because the more he speaks, the more it becomes clear that he doesn’t know what he is talking about and that this is more about his name in the press that advocating something for his constituents.
Imagine the good that could be done if he shouted as loudly for redefining NYC’s air traffic area and getting better air traffic control systems in place.
Instead he leads the charge against an airline who has no New York bases and who flies just 14 flights from NYC (La Guardia) to destinations such as Detroit (2 flights), Fort Lauderdale (7 flights), Myrtle Beach (4 flights) and Atlanta (1 flight).
Hard to view them as a threat to NYC area consumers particularly since they offer flights on the NYC – FLL route as low as $60 each way with a checked bag fee of $19 and who *still* allows personal items free on board if they fit under the seat in front of them.
Let me point out that several airlines who he received commitments from charge *more* for checked baggage.
So much for reality.
Reality has never been a strong suit for any politician. The Honorable Mr. Schumer included. It’s never about making sense with politicians. It’s about making noise and getting their names in the media, even if what they actually are doing is stupid, reckless, and/or detrimental to society.