My last post ("Life's Annoyances"), and a comment I received on it. got me to thinking about the frustrations of modern air travel, and how we got to where we are now, when most people seem to agree air travel is neither fun nor convenient anymore.
Certainly the handling of our "stuff" is one of those areas that contributes to our inconvenience. People jam onto planes carrying all manner of huge suitcases, oddly shaped bulky packages, or multiple bags per traveler; they delay loading, whack their fellow passengers with their gear, and the like; and as my commenter pointed out, they're saddled with having to drag their bags around with them through check-in, to the snack bar, to the rest room, etc. This isn't a new trend that arose after airlines started charging for stowed baggage. It's been going on (and getting worse) for decades, abetted by the airlines themselves, which do not enforce the few rules they do have (regarding the size of carry-on bags, for example).
Airlines will tell us that their passengers demand this "convenience" but in my view that's double-speak worthy of George Orwell. If we look back at some of those idyllic advertisements for air travel in the 1950s when companies like PanAm and TWA were trying to build passenger traffic, we'll see those happy besuited passengers filing aboard with nothing but a purse or a briefcase. They're not dragging entire steamer trunks on rollers! Nor were airplanes designed for huge amounts of in-cabin luggage.
I suggest that it was the airlines, not the passengers, that encouraged more and more carry-on luggage. As air travel burgeoned, they found it inconvenient and expensive to handle our baggage. Why bother with that, when they could subtly incentivize people to carry their own belongings? As it became standard for the business traveler to carry his/her own luggage onto the plane with him, savings translated into fewer baggage handlers, less interest in making the service work well, and more lost and damaged baggage. Now we're in the era of paying separately for a whole panoply of "services" that ought to be part of the ticket price.
The whole process is standard teaching in first-year business school courses. Establish a product or service in the market, and then look for ways to reduce costs while still charging the same or higher prices. Whether it's self-service gas pumps, ATMs, or a seat on an airplane, the process is the same -- do it cheaper, but sell it as a benefit to your customer.
We can't deny that in some cases the end result really is more convenient. After all, we can get cash at any time of the day or night now (rather than just the three hours per day that banks used to be open to the public) but on the other hand, who needs cash these days? But far too often, the benefit to the consumer is illusory, while the advantage to the seller is tangible.
Will the new fee structures change anything? Charging for checked luggage will only make matters worse, pushing people toward carrying more and more junk into the cabin with them. One airline is testing a charge for a carry-on bag. That seems like effrontery. It is effrontery, if a fee is assessed for any bag. But if properly structured -- what about no fee up to a certain basic size and weight, with charges increasing as the piece gets larger and/or heavier? -- it could actually bring improvement. Unfortunately I don't see any benefit for the airline in that, so it's unlikely to happen.
Finally, it's worth noting that governments also succumb to the lure of short-term savings that leave traveler paying for that "saving" thousands, even millions, of times over in lost time and inconvenience. In the Washington DC area, the "metro" is being extended for the first time to Dulles International Airport (an airport, incidentally, that has the slowest baggage delivery I've ever encountered anywhere). But this week there were reports that to cut costs, planners are considering building the airport subway station NOT at/under the terminal, but at one of the satellite parking garages instead.
Reason? Cost. Effect? Travelers for ever afterward will have to schlepp their bags into the subway, then get off for a second trip by bus/rail/whatever to the terminal, adding another 30 minutes to their planning. How many people will give up entirely and take a cab instead, when faced with this kind of deliberately placed obstacle to convenience and speed? I will. Such short-sightedness is endemic; ultimately, it adds needlessly to the frustrations of air travel.