Beware Burden Shifiting: Charging for Bags
This seems to be a very odd response on the part of airlines . . .
Now, for the first time, a major U.S. airline says it will begin charging many passengers to check even one bag, a move that’s angered customers amid predictions that it will spread to other carriers and cause havoc during the peak summer-travel season.
Hit hard with record-high fuel costs and an aging, gas-guzzling fleet, American Airlines, the nation’s largest carrier, said Wednesday it will begin charging some domestic economy-class passengers $15 each way for the first checked bag.
I think everyone gets that airlines are operating under very difficult conditions. Every decision is freighted with trade-offs. The idea of unbundling services probably isn’t a bad one either, but at some point, you have to wonder if the loss of transparency is worth it. I see two problems here . . .
Already facing a huge consumer backlash in the form of proposed traveler’s bill of rights, the constant unbundling of pricing will ultimately generate another one. It used to be that the price was the price: a couple of dollars of taxes on the end were both easy to understand and uniformly applied across the industry. Now, the price isn’t the price. It’s just a matter of time before someone fires up a class action law suit.
More troubling is the follow-on effect that systems dynamics people call “burden shifting.” Cabin personnel and gate agents hate carry on baggage. Every extra bag walked on the plane delays the boarding process even further. This goes double for casual travelers. Every extra bag they carry on clogs the process double. So charging for the first bag, and the people hit with the charge will be the casual travelers, will have a perverse and unwanted effect.
Tags: BurdenShifting, Airlines charging for bags, systems dynamics, decision making
