Fighting airline fees: Will passengers vote with their wallets?
— -- At Cleveland Hopkins International Airport yellow strips of tape, like you might see surrounding a crime scene or a dangerous construction zone, are draped across the guide ropes at the Southwest Airlines ticket counter queue. Similar yellow strips are taped to the floor in the gate areas. If you cross those lines you have entered a "No Hidden Fee Zone" according to this yellow tape, referring to a growing list of fees for checked luggage, seat selection, fuel surcharges and more, tacked on to the price of a ticket by most U.S. airlines these days.
Posters, banners and reels of yellow tape at airports across the country comprise Southwest's latest marketing campaign. The signs boast that Southwest has no fees for checked luggage, no fees for ticket changes, no seat selection fees, no curbside check-in fees, no phone reservation fees, no fees for snacks, and perhaps most importantly these days – no fuel surcharge fees.
While other airlines un-bundle their pricing and serve up a menu of a la carte prices for many services that were formerly built into the price of your ticket (see recent related article on a la carte pricing), the airline that has always dared to be different is at it again, holding the line on new fees and surcharges – at least for now.
While other airlines struggle to eke out a meager profit even in the best of times, Southwest has always found a way to make money and grow rapidly. While airline passengers fume over escalating airline ticket prices and add-on fees, Southwest is betting that disenchanted customers of other airlines will jump ship to fly the no-fee skies of Southwest.
But will this new and daring strategy really work? Capturing other airlines' customers may not be a simple task. Preliminary indications show little evidence that unhappy passengers are leaving their fee-happy airlines and switching to the no-hidden-fees skies of Southwest. With the summer travel season behind us and an uncertain economic future ahead, travel demand has plummeted, with six of the top seven U.S. airlines flying 14% to 20% fewer passengers in September than in the previous month.
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