Pulaski

It only appears contradictory if you didn't read my entire post, which clearly explained why I would pay someone else to transport my suitcase.

And I sincerely doubt that the marginal cost of flying one suitcase is more than about $5 - €5 ish, a little more fuel, and to be mishanded by 2-3 ground crew at each end.

scrubbedexpat142

Well, your reasons, which I think are nonsense - however that is personal choice & opinion.(& and I did read your post). The cost of flying a large amount of baggage is considerable, your figure is a meaningless generalisation. Presumably, from your position, your carriers don't charge, charities all!

Pulaski

I have no concerns about paying a fair price for goods and services (unlike you, apparently, per another recent exchange I had with you, who expects the government to give services aways, but that would be too off-topic here), but sometimes provision of ancilliary services is reasonably expected and commonly bundled and paid for together - such as hotels providing a bed as well as a room, restaurants providing tables and cutlery, not just food, and many larger shops and supermarkets providing "free" access to toilets. So when your business is transporting people for the purposes of staying away from home for a period of a few days or weeks, it is both reasonable and expected that most of them would need to carry some changes of clothes and footwear that are more than can be crammed into a carry-on bag.

And my figues were a guesstimate based on one suitcase being a tiny fraction of the take-off weight of an aircraft, which is the driving factor behind fuel costs, and on the way that any company prices services, which is to take the cost of, for example one extra employee, and divide their cost between the number of "units" they can produce/ handle in on shift. If one person can handle, say 200 suitcases per shift and costs $/€200/shift ($/€25/hr, inclusive of taxes, social charges, and overheads), then each suitcase has cost $/€1 per manual movment - so one person to load the suitcase onto one of the carts, and one to take it off the cart an into the hold, then the opposite at the other end on arrival. In short there is no way that the cost of transporting a suitcases costs an airline more than a small fraction of even as little as a $/€/£30 checked baggage charge.

scrubbedexpat142

You forgot the loss of paying cargo caused by the carriage of hold baggage.
And the airport charges for using the baggage handling system.
Every extra 10Kg of fuel uplifted requires another Kg to lift it.

Lion in Winter

It isn't "shady", it's capitalism.

Of course I would be more than prepared to listen to an argument setting out why capitalism itself is inherently shady.

ssoomro

Hey Lion... lets start another flame war here .. hahahah

Well, yeah its partly a matter of capitalistic maximizing the profits.. but Capitalism also allow the markets to lower the prices..if sufficient competition, fair play regulations, oversight etc exists...Route monopolies are another issue.. i remember flying between Detroit and Minneapolis every week .. about 20 yrs back .. back then it was Northwest (before it got acquired by Delta) monopoly .. the cost of one hr + flight was +_ $1000 .. While one could fly Detroit to Europe for around $500...

Airlines are need to maximize per seat profit .. competition in open marketplace forces them to advertise very low upfront costs..to catch the fish and then try to get some additional moneys... through "options etc"..that is why the Caveat Emptor.....

I am surprised one ugly part of this story has not come up .. Taxes and Fees charged by govts and airports.. Every time I check the breakdown on my airfare.... i find the actual flight costs about 30% of the money i paid .. rest is all fees and taxes.. sometimes .. just to fill the seats.. and get some money through "options" .. i have seen airlines sell the fare at huge (95% or more) discount .. but the tax/fees portion still has to be paid . .same is the case with tickets bought using miles etc.

nevertheless.. i also find.. compared to 20+ yrs back .. cost of flying is significantly lower.. access/choice it much broader ... and thanx to consolidator/Aggregators (kayak, Hopper, SkyScanner etc) ..i have better chance to pick a deal .. but story is not all wine and roses there either .. Through consolidations .. buyout etc.. many of the 'various options' you find online .. are actually same holding company in the background . (e-g; Agoda, Booking.com, Kayak, Priceline, cheapflights.com etc...while to lay person they are different choices.. they are all owned by Bookng Holdings Inc.hahaa) .. so its always caveat emptor .. its ur money vs the wolves .. hahahaha

scrubbedexpat142

Some good points in this post!

Ancillary services bundled within the air fare, including, but not limited to -

Aircraft finance costs
Airport landing fees
Aircraft ground handling services
Aircraft overnight standing
Aircraft maintenance
Air traffic control route charges
Flight crew (operations)
Flight crew training including simulator training.
Airline operations support
Certification
En route diversions due weather, military activities / unscheduled runway closures.
En route diversions occasioned by passengers, ie unlawful activity, medical emergencies.

The extras on the base price are tailored to / by / for the individual passenger, depending on their requirements.
​​​

eCdD

Nobody ever bought a MAS flight to Europe because of the price, they are mostly hell expensive.

And I doubt that many airlines on this route do the baggage fee "trick", I know it from other routes but not here. We usually fly with one of the Arabs, Singapore or Turkish.

Pulaski

Agreed, there is good money to be made in airfreight, so why bother with passengers at all? .... Oh they would be freight-only flights, freight-only aircraft. and even freight-only airlines.

Anyway, there appears to be another reason (for me) to favour shipping my luggage independent of the airline I am flying on - there is an on-going luggage-handling melt-down going on at the moment at a number of major airports around the world.