Flying Blind

A few months ago in this space, I wrote about courage and how a lot of people dont know they have it. This month, well be talking about people who are completely lacking the courage chromosome and could use an emergency implant, stat. Im talking about the CEOs of the nations airlines and the people they take advice from, particularly the ones who said it was a smart thing to charge people for checked baggage.

You want to gouge us for extra leg room? Headphones? Cashews? Knock yourself out. But charging people to pay for the privilege of taking a suitcase with them when theyre traveling is the most contemptible affront to consumers since the invention of the modern airplane seat. It is craven, cynical, wrongheaded behavior that should embarrass anyone who runs an airline.

The only major carriers in the United States with the institutional cojones to buck this trend are JetBlue and Southwest. To their CEOs, I say, You da men! I dont fly as much as I used tomaybe three or four times a yearbut I assure you that if JetBlue or Southwest is going where Im going, one of them will always get my business over any other carrier. Doesnt matter that JetBlue is a little too chummy (Our flight today is under the command of Captain Larry) and Southwest still doesnt do seat assignments (unless you pay extra). Let me check a bag for nothing and Im yours.

To the rest, I say, Buy a freaking clue! Or give a listen to JetBlues CEO, David Barger, who had this to say about baggage fees: There are such things as bad profits. … On the backs of the customer, airlines are driving profitability and I think its foolish. I think its a short-term gain and will cost airlines in the long term.

Granted, this problem isnt even an issue for frequent fliers who travel often enough to earn exemptions from luggage fees. But Im surprised there hasnt been more of an uprising from traveling hoi polloi. True, theres a bill in the U.S. Senate that would require all United States airlines to allow passengers to check one bag free of charge. And Janet Napolitano, the head of Homeland Security, has said the resulting crush of carry-on bags has slowed the screening process so much thats its costing us an extra $260 million a year. But come on! Do we really need to nanny-state the airline companies into doing the proper and ethical thing?

Apparently, we do, because it took the U.S. Department of Transportation to require airlines to be honest about the actual fares they charge when taxes are included.

You and I both know that bag fees are a cowardly dodge because the airlines simply dont want to raise their published fares. (Thats also why they didnt want to show us the taxes.) They nickel-and-dime us while perpetuating the charade that air travel is still a bargain, oblivious of the fact that they are almost universally despised for treating us like morons. And we go along because we dont have a lot of choice in the matter. Amtrak and Greyhound arent viable options for most of us on tight schedules.

Domestic airlines collected an estimated $3.4 billion in bag fees last year. Id be fine if they tacked all of that onto their fares and quit the little shell game theyre playing. Wed still fly with them because, duh, we have to.

I have no problem with airlines making money. I have a huge problem with airlines making money by treating customers contemptuously because they know they can get away with it.

JOHN LEVESQUE is the managing editor of Seattle Business magazine.