Grossman's analysis is completely flawed. Along with Anna's points, airlines are also in the business of shipping items and packages. Not all that cargo space is used for passenger luggage.

If his analysis was accurate, the entire industry would have disappeared by now.

All these people saying charge the fatties more - suppose they do charge by weight? All those that are men will automatically pay more,as typically, the most overweight woman usually still weighs less than an average American male. So women would pay less - apparently they have been subsidizing heavier male passengers all along.

I agree with the #3 post - just raise the fare and keep the overweight luggage fees. Anything that adds to the nightmare of the carry-on overhead bins drama is just gong to make flying even worse. I usually carry a small messenger bag size carry on - you know, the one that actually fits into the size limits that everyone ignores?

Stupid policy. They are just shifting the luggage to a different area of the plane.

BA has being doing similar, so European flights/airlines are really going down the same path.

Oh eff it, why don't they just start charging *everyone* by weight?

They could have each passenger and ALL his/her luggage (carry-on and checked) step on a huge electronic scale, and then adjust the price of the ticket according to how much fuel it will take to get the whole load to its destination.

Sound good, everybody?

JIC, morbidly obese people already pay for more, usually a seat and a half, if they can't fit their fat asses into one coash seat. I see absolutely no advantage to being obese.

JIC must be pretty fat

to the people saying obese people should pay more: maybe you can start flying DumbShit Air.

this is great news

people need to start realizing oil is no longer cheap and to adjust accordigly...bring on $10/gallon gas i say

death to suburbia

I don't see the big deal. Get a max-sized carry-on. Fill it with all your stuff. Bring it to the boarding area.

- If you can find a spot for it, you save yourself the hassle of baggage claim and pay no fee.

- If the bins are full, it gets gate checked. So it's no hassle to you, no fee, and you still avoid baggage claim.

"Which makes those low fares you've been paying a steal and unsustainable."

Exactly. The end of cheap oil will change everything. The sooner everyone stops living in the past, the better off we'll be.

Maybe this will force people to learn to pack lighter and more efficently. People need to realize that they don't six days worth of clothes for a weekend trip.

fat people and unions suck

fat union members deserve no place on our planet

I'm all for this fee: just as there are those who rightfully feel that they shouldn't have to pay as much as obese passengers, why should I, as a light traveler, have to pay as much as someone who checks in the kitchen sink?

The fee lets people who only do carry-on (eg, business travelers) continue with the same priced tickets while charging more for people who use more resources. Same as the obesity charge.

I'm glad I travel lightly.

So does this mean they are not going to lose my bags?

carry-on!

Don't forget that US carriers also has to deal with the dreaded unions and their LT contracts. Asian and Europeans carriers mostly don't have that problem. That's also why you see pretty flight attendants in other carriers, while you're being served by "experienced" people in American ones.

Also I am all for charging fatties for their extra weights, another reason why obesity epidemic is costing all Americans.

@Rockenrope - All airlines hedge, but most in the united states didn't hedge as well as southwest, as Kojak pointed out.

European airlines seem to be in pretty good shape though. Well, relative to airlines here.

Correct Rocknrope. For example, Southwest airlines locked in an extremely favorable rate on the cost of fuel for the next few years. Their fuel hedging strategy alone is whats keeping them profitable, that and their fleet commonality and simplicity, + good management, something the legacy carriers don't have.

I agree with Mr. Noah, fat people carry more weight on planes. So let's bring on a national fat ass airline tax. Or how about a new company called PhatAir, where the planes have 1/2 the passengers but carry the same load in weight. That way the fat ass can go from his Escalade to his Phatairplane to his McMansion by the sea.

One thing I don't quite understand - airlines don't buy fuel on the open market. I believe all of them employ risk management teams which have hedged their cost of fuel several years into the future. How far into the future can a company hedge fuel costs, 2 years, 5 years? If an RM team is doing its job, it should have hedged their costs when the price of fuel was much lower, like in the early part of this decade, no?

The main flaw in this analysis is that each consumer doesn't pay his/her representative share of the airline's cost. Premium passengers (i.e., business/corporate passengers, First-Class revenue passengers, and last-minute bookers who don't use Orbitz) effectively subsidize the cost of "monkey class" passengers who make the implicit trade-off of lower service, cramped quarters, and being nickeled-and-dimed in exchange for cheaper fares. Expect renegotiations with corporate clients to be the second place that these airlines look to raise basic fares, after eliminating or (further) severely restricting non-revenue travel from rewards programs.

As an aside, does anyone, for a moment, think that the airline business as currently implemented is inherently unsustainable? It seems that with every bump or jolt in the economy, airlines are begging for a bailout or looking for some way to charge more. How much longer until we let the market forces actually dictate fewer consumer airlines?