Expert: Here’s What You Should Do About Airline Luggage Fee Increases

30.03.2024 - 09:37 / forbes.com / Airlines

Since the beginning of the year, most of the major U.S. airlines have raised their baggage fees. It now costs an average of $35 to check your bag on a domestic flight.

In the travel industry, charging separately for luggage is called unbundling. And it turns out there are experts who specialize in unbundling and have a deep knowledge of what's happening behind the scenes.

Sasha Gainullin, CEO of the travel insurance company battleface, is one of the world's leading authorities on unbundling. I asked him for his thoughts on the latest airline baggage fee increases — and what passengers should do about it.

Here's our interview.

What do you think of the way airlines have unbundled their product, and specifically luggage fees?

I think unbundling is necessary for any customer-driven industry. But as an airline customer, making things more expensive without transparency is something I generally disagree with. While unbundling allows airlines to become more profitable, they should also be more transparent with customers.

How would you make it more transparent?

In general, airfares are being promoted across multiple comparison sites, and travelers aren't loyal to one specific airline. They will more than likely choose a ticket based on the actual flight cost without factoring in the additional costs that will be presented to them in an online purchase experience.

Unbundling ancillary additions like bags, seats and meals potentially lowers the base price for an airline ticket, so there’s an opportunity to present negatively viewed fees into something positive.

Unbundling allows choice and the ability to pay for what you want, which is a positive for the customer. I think they’ve done a good job rolling out “basic economy” seats. There’s definitely a market out there for people who just want cheap airfare without the bells and whistles.

So how would you handle it?

There is so much about airfare costs that the general public doesn’t understand. Why is the J fare more expensive than the L fare? Why does seat 10D cost $85, but seat 11D costs $40?

I'd invest heavily in teams that have a full understanding of the products being offered, including product, data and marketing. Then, through extensive testing, I'd focus on optimizing the e-commerce information architecture to improve customer experience, which in turn leads to loyalty and repeat customers.

Finally, I'd look to using the data obtained to build out AI models to help guide customers by giving them recommendations based on their profile, leading to an exceptional experience, because choice can also be overwhelming when trying to make decisions.

What's your advice to air travelers on dealing with these new fees?

My advice would be to choose what