Spirit Celebrates One Year of $45 Carry-On Baggage Fee

Sometimes it's all in how you say it. Spirit Airlines is celebrating what it calls "one year of stress-free boarding." Most others would say that what it's really celebrating is one year of charging for carry-on bags.

So far, Spirit is the only airline with the nerve – or courage -- to charge for carry-ons, a decision Spirit calls "a highly effective response to the boarding time maelstrom that still affects the rest of the U.S. airline industry."

"Spirit is committed to giving customers the power to save by creating options for consumers when other airlines promote conformity," said Spirit's President and CEO Ben Baldanza. "The carry-on policy was a bold move to address a real and costly boarding time delay concern, and has proven to be a true win for consumers."

Ken of Pompano Beach, Fla. would probably disagree. He wrote to ConsumerAffairs.com after a recent trip on Spirit: "When I went to print out my boarding pass at the airline I had to pay $40 just to carry on 1 item. In between the round trip, I paid an additional $80. There is no other carrier that charges for carry on, let alone $40 for 1 item."

Truly delighted?

But Spirit assures us that its customers are truly delighted with the policy. In a press release, it quotes Luis of Hollywood, Fla., as saying: "I recently traveled to San Juan via Spirit. I'm a member of the $9 club. The roundtrip was flawless. The new fee for carry-on luggage does work. We were onboard and seated within minutes. We were ready to depart 15 minutes before our scheduled departure. Charging the fee for carry-ons does decrease carry-ons and does speed up the boarding process. Thank you."

And who knows? Maybe consumers really are getting into the spirit of paying to carry their own baggage but a ConsumerAffairs.com analysis of what consumers are saying on social media and forums casts the slightest ray of doubt onto the assertion.

In a computerized analysis of consumer sentiment gleaned from about 18,000 Internet postings we found that Spirit's standing has taken a sharp dip in recent months, falling more than 70% since last September, when the changes were implemented.

As the chart indicates, Spirit has been steadily losing altitude with consumers since March 2011, when it had a net favorable rating of 23%, compared with a minus 78% in August, when there were 10 times more negative than favorable sentiments posted on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites and forums.

No single theme emerged in our analysis of consumer sentiment, although "fees" and "delays" were among the gripes voiced by passengers.

Looking on the bright side, CEO Baldanza says the $45 baggage fee has cut boarding and deplaning time by an average of six minutes per flight. That, he says, adds up to a total savings of 6,000 hours over the last year.

Oh, and it also adds up to an extra $81 million in revenue, according to federal statistics quoted by the Los Angeles Times.

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