They’re bagging this beloved rule.
Southwest Airlines has ended its decades-old “bags fly free” policy, where passengers were allowed two complimentary checked bags regardless of their ticket fare.
Starting tomorrow, passengers aboard the budget carrier will have to pay to store their bags in the cargo hold, One Mile At A Time reported.
This drastic break from tradition was originally announced in March as a way to bolster revenue and ward off advances from activist investors.
As dictated by the policy, flyers will reportedly have to pay $35 for one checked bag and $45 for the second one, which is more or less in line with the industry standard.
However, some Southwest Airlines patrons will be exempt from the checked bag fees, including customers with A-List Preferred status and those who pay the most premium fare, Livemint reported.
Meanwhile, customers with the lower-loyalty A-List status will be able to check one bag for free, as will passengers holding the carrier’s co-branded credit card.
It’s unclear how this move will impact Southwest’s bottom line.
But last year, the airline’s executives said this change was the wrong move, claiming that they could garner up to $1.5 billion from baggage fees, but that they’d lose $1.8 billion in market share from people who flew the airline because of the perk.
The bosses pointed out that the “bags fly free” rule was one way Southwest had distinguished itself from the competition, Blade reported.
Another was the beloved “first come first serve” seating policy, which Southwest is phasing out as as well in favor of the more standard assigned seating format.
Air travel experts are also skeptical that this policy change will pay dividends.
“I suspect that a couple of years down the road, we’ll see that this plan was all a wash, more or less,” said Ben Shlappig of One Mile At A Time. “I don’t think this will be some game changer that massively elevates Southwest’s profitability, because the airline is otherwise in a tough position, given demand patterns.”
Many customers also took umbrage over the policy change after it was announced in March.
“Call it what you will — boycott, mass exodus, defecting. Can we do that in a massive wave right now?” one person wrote in a Southwest Reddit thread.
Another fumed, “I used to favor [Southwest] for the lack of baggage fees. They definitely will not be my first choice if their prices stay the same.”
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