Starting Today Allegiant Air Charges For Carry On Bags
In April 2010 Spirit Airlines announced the unthinkable … the airline would begin charging passengers for carry on bags, shocking the travel industry that any airline would charge for carry on bags before Ireland’s Ryanair. Now, two years later Ryanair is still not charging passengers for carry on bags, however Las Vegas based low cost carrier Allegiant Air has announced that they will begin charging passengers for carry on bags for flights booked starting today, the 4th of April 2012.
Carry on fees for bringing a carry on bag on board an Allegiant Air flight will be a variable rate, with the airline intending to charge between US$15 and US$35 for bags stowed in the overhead bins. Passengers paying for their carry on bags online at the time of booking will pay between US$15 and US$30 depending on the route. Passengers paying for their carry on bags at the airport will pay a flat US$35 fee.
Allegiant Travel’s CEO Maurice Gallagher stated, “When it is all said and done and you get to the bottom line and hit the ‘pay’ button, and you can shop our fares against anybody else. We are typically 50% lower.” The airline justifies its new carry on baggage fee on the increasing and unstable cost of fuel.
While Allegiant Travel intends to pay attention to customer reaction to the new carry on baggage fee, Allegiant’s Director of Communications, Brian Davis, does not expected any long term backlash from the airline’s passengers.
Allegiant Air, like Spirit Airlines, will allow passengers to travel with one personal item that safely fits under the seat in front of them at no fee.
Passengers traveling on tickets booked prior to today with Allegiant Air will not be required to pay fees for their carry on baggage.
Happy Flying!
If the fee is to counter increasing and unstable fuel, why not impose a fuel surcharge. Simple a fuel surcharge has to be removed once fuel prices are stable or the price goes down. Carry on bag fees will stay.
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It seems to me that in this very competitive world that we live in, airlines are squeezed to the limit and need to raise revenue. You will probably find that Allegiant Air are still cheaper than most of the other budget airlines.