Air Travel's Unintended Consequences

To help offset rising jet-fuel prices, American Airlines recently added a $15 per bag fee for passengers checking more than one bag on their flights.

So, how is this working out? How does human behavior factor in? Here's one story.

Last night, I flew on an American flight from St. Louis back to San Francisco. The in-bound connecting flight from Miami was two hours late. Thus, all 152 passengers were ready and eager when it finally came to board the flight (the plane was a single-aisle 757).

It took 40 minutes to get all of the passengers on. Why so long? Since passengers didn't want to check their luggage, they brought larger than usual bags on the flight. Since there's only so much overhead storage space, it took passengers longer to rearrange the bags in the over-head space so they could get their bags to fit. And, of course, they did this while they were standing in the aisle so that no one could pass them.

Here's the juicy unintended consequence: since we pulled out so late, the pilot came on and said, "We'll try to speed things up for you, and fly a little faster to make up up some of the time we lost getting out of the gate."

So, in effect, American's new checked bag policy ended up costing them money in extra jet-fuel use. Wow!

QUESTION: What unintended consequences have you noticed lately?

Comments

[Free to think, free to believe]

Thanks to The Law in the UK - bags can only be a certain size and therefore your folks with bigger bags would be sent back to either check in their luggage, store it somewhere or post it off (if the folks seeing them off have already left).

The unintended consequence of this policy was that some folk trying to get through boarding gates/security barrier have been sent back to check luggage in - thereby delaying them from going through the boarding gate... not so different from your tale in the end. {No I don't believe it makes the skies a suffer place which is, overtly, the supposed intended consequence.}

[Roger von Oech]

Free to Think: There's a "small" bag-size policy for most US airlines, e.g., "does your bag fit here," but it's not often enforced.

[Randy Bosch]

Airlines serving my local airport all fly a variety of craft depending upon season (weather & altitude challenge as well as seasonal passenger load swings). Therefore, you never know what will be at the gate (well, we do because we book on-line...). However, if your bag is too big for the overhead on a particular craft, it is "gate checked" at the ramp & picked up there after deplaning - saving, for those in the know, the frustration of the baggage claim merry-go-round every time!! Unintended Result - Many big bags going thru security screening that wouldn't fit on ANY of the planes, taking screening time and sometimes not fitting through the x-ray, etc.

[Roger von Oech]

Randy: interesting consequence!

[Jim McGee]

Unintended consequences perhaps, but also thoroughly predictable ones. That's the part of this business decision that I cannot understand. I keep trying to visualize the meeting where this was discussed. The only thing that comes to mind is that it might have been like the meeting where the folks at M&Ms turned down Speilberg when he offered them product placement in E.T.