Not sure if this has already been mentioned, but Monarch Scheduled (ZB) have decided to follow suit with most other low-cost airlines and are going to charge for checking-in of baggage from 1st November.
It will set you back an additional £3.99 if you pre-book online, or £10 at the airport on the day of departure!
From TravelMole.com
No-frills airline, flyMonarch.com, is to charge passengers for all hold baggage on its scheduled flights.
From November 1, it will charge £3.99 per checked in bag each way for passengers who pre-book online, or £10 for passengers who pay at the airport.
Hold baggage can also be pre-booked via the flyMonarch.com call centre at a cost of £8 per bag per one-way flight.
Managing director Liz Savage, said: “It is now common practice amongst airlines to charge those customers who elect to take hold baggage and by doing this we will be able to keep our flight prices low.
“Since the launch of our online check-in service earlier this year, there has been a notable reduction in the amount of hold baggage carried on our flights. Passengers are preferring to minimise the time spent in queues at the airport, opting to check in from home and by-passing the fast bag-drop desks at the airports by travelling with hand luggage only.”
Hand baggage allowance is one carry-on bag per person up to 10kg in weight and within the standard DFT dimensions, 56cm x 45cm x 25cm.
By Bev Fearis
Sorry for sounding so blunt, but I think that ZB will loose alot of customers by doing this…why cant they just include this charge in the price of the fares, and just advertise that they are then gaurenteed a 20kg weight allowance?!
Surely customers/passengers would not mind paying a fare at the start that had all the additional costs included from the start…I know I certainly would!
Any opinions/thoughts on this, please feel free to share them.
By: MyTravel UK - 20th September 2007 at 19:11
This is Monarch following the herd. They have been able to offer ‘low’ prices for years without having to charge for luggage so what’s changed? I very much doubt there has been a sizable reduction in those taking hold baggage as most of Monarch’s routes are bucket and spade holiday destinations.
Monarch is just getting greedy and adding extras to its already not-so-low fares. I cannot recall the last time I saw a fare on flyMonarch.com in line with that of easyJet or Ryanair.
Customers do not understand this nor do they appreciate it. The fare is no lower for those taking hand luggage only, its just more expensive for those who are doing a little more then an overnight trip.
MyTravel UK
By: cloud_9 - 20th September 2007 at 17:27
In a area of the market where the customer is often looking for fares in single digits this gives the opportunity to save even more money by limiting what you carry to very small amounts of handluggage. What that in turn does for the airline is save money on baggage handlers and fuel, which then gives them low enough costs to be able to offer said single digit fares. At some of the fares we are now seeing loco airlines can’t really afford to include anything in the price other than the seat.
The evidence from the loco’s who have introduced this already is that it does work.
Those of us who say we would rather pay as part of the fare and have a normal check-in baggage service presumably don’t fall into the ‘just want the cheapest ticket’ part of the market.
1L.
A fair point you make OneLeft…but for loyal Monarch customers, this will not go down very well. As far as I am aware, at present the fee you pay at the time of your booking includes a ‘free’ weight allowance of 20kgs…and obviously people are prepared to pay it at the moment, but if they now have the hassle of having to pre-book their luggage at an additional cost of £3.99 or paying £10 at the airport on the day…they are going to be far from impressed, and as a result, potentially less loyal towards Monarch in the future!
And just for the record…I am not a loyal Monarch customer!:D
Those of us who say we would rather pay as part of the fare and have a normal check-in baggage service presumably don’t fall into the ‘just want the cheapest ticket’ part of the market.
I fall into this category because I actually like the odd frill and have no objection to paying that little bit more for an overall better service…but I would rather pay for everything in one go than have to worry about being ‘pre-booking’ stuff in advance or paying a higher cost on the day of departure.
By: OneLeft - 20th September 2007 at 15:52
I cannot see any valuable effect this would have for an airline
In a area of the market where the customer is often looking for fares in single digits this gives the opportunity to save even more money by limiting what you carry to very small amounts of handluggage. What that in turn does for the airline is save money on baggage handlers and fuel, which then gives them low enough costs to be able to offer said single digit fares. At some of the fares we are now seeing loco airlines can’t really afford to include anything in the price other than the seat.
The evidence from the loco’s who have introduced this already is that it does work.
Those of us who say we would rather pay as part of the fare and have a normal check-in baggage service presumably don’t fall into the ‘just want the cheapest ticket’ part of the market.
1L.
By: Jet 22 - 20th September 2007 at 15:43
^^ That is what i think will happen. More of monarch’s loyal custermers will start leaving and not re-newing there ff cards. Also i think that this is a
stupid idea as monarch schduled arnt really a lca
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September 20, 2007 at 1:12 pm