Goodbye to ‘Bag Fly Free’ on South West Airlines, Last Freebi in America

There is almost nothing guarantee in life. Definitely not weather, electricity, health, tariffs or eggs. But for more than 50 years, American consumers could count Southwest Airlines Let them check the bag for free.

The South-West in Dallas is ending the policy in May. Customers are not happy.

“This was the only reason I flew in the south-west,” said a 21-year-old singer and actress Makene Cay Alford, who lives near Alabama, Alabama.

Alford, which plans to visit New York City later this year, said she would “definitely” consider taking another airline now.

South-west customer-friendly policies have survived the recession, oil priced spikes and even the Kovid-19 epidemic, the years of goodwill and a loyalist win the following, even it has increased. No other airline carries more people in the United States than South -West.

Now, the airline with an unmatched streak of profitability (almost never an annual loss has been posted) is under pressure to increase profits as large contestants beaten the airline. So it is retreating from the years of disappearing the idea that they will charge customers for bags, adding other business-models such as seating assigned that usually gives it more with all other airlines.

36 -year -old Errol Joseph, a sales advisor living in New York and Dallas, said he will now consider flying Delta air lines If the price is similar to the southwest because its aircraft has a opposite seatback screen of the southwest. Joseph said that with a change in goods policy, “there is no reason to be loyal.”

The bag policy was more than almost long, most women were able to get credit cards on their own without signature. But those days are over. No more free, America.

Retail vendors, restaurants and airlines are among businesses that are pulling back on free allowances, from the honorable birthday coffee to free package returns, since the epidemic has ended.

Fast, airline perks are available only to members or customers of the loyalty program who buy more expensive tickets.

Delta provides free Wi-Fi to customers on board, but only for those who have signed up for their Skymiles Loyalty Program. United Airlines Similarly, there is a similar trick, meanwhile, in the meantime, the customers are installing equipment on their aircraft so that the customers can soon join Elon Musk’s Starlink Satellite Wi-Fi for free if they are members of the airline’s mileagePlus program.

This usually takes real financial pressure for companies to return to GiveaWays, but it is not unprecedented. StarbucksFor example, the deployment for dairy options to attract customers to try to reverse the sales recession was relieved.

The decision of the southwest puts investors in the pit against customers.

Activist hedge funds and, as last year, Big Southwest shareholder Elliot Investment Management has increased the pressure on the airline to increase its profits as rivals like Delta and United have pulled forward. Elliott pushed for rapid change in the carrier, which has been hesitant to change for a long time, so it can increase revenue. Last year, the firm won five board seats in an agreement with South -West.

In fact, after the South -West unveiled the bag shift and other policy changes, its shares rose close to 9% this week, while Delta, United and American, fell over 11% every 11%. The CEOs of all the carriers expressed concern over the demand for weak-to-appropriate travel, but the South-West promoted this trend, as it hopes that the changes to add hundreds of crores of dollars to their lower line.

Dan McKenzie, an analyst of the Cottage Research Partners Airline, said in a note on Wednesday, “The shareholder activism is re -shaping the LUV in a company, which believes that investors will eventually be gravitational.”

The decision to dig a two-free-checked bag is part of the airline’s major profit-making changes, in which this seat assignment and price are shedding other long-running offerings such as open-seam and single-class cabin for additional legume options.

It will also start offering a no-frills, no-change basic economy tickets. Flight credit will also have a termination date soon. Last month, Southwest had its first month trimmed, with about 15% of corporate jobs cut. It has also reduced the oriented flight.

The air journey is still not in the last half century, and while it has been held on several main principles, nor is it south -western. It has slowly made changes in the years, for example, has started selling things such as early boarding. And with breaking new records of air travel, it is necessary to sit for both customers and to make the jobs of the employees easier, the Southwest authorities have argued.

Charging for checked bags, some southwest leaders repeatedly said that it will spend more than it can spend. (The US carrier brought more than $ 7 billion in the goods fees in 2023.)

In a presentation at an investor day last September, Southwest said it would receive a bag for a bag between $ 1 billion and $ 1.5 billion, but would lose a market share of $ 1.8 billion.

Officials of the southwest said that it had changed.

Hours after the customers broke the news, CEO Bob Jordan said at the JP Morgan Industry Conference on Tuesday that “Unlike our previous analysis, real customer booking behavior through our new booking channels such as Metacchar, did not show that we are getting the same benefits from the offer of our bundle with free bags, which motivates us to update.”

Jordan stated that the carrier “has new officers with direct experience of implementing bag fees in many airlines, and also helps to validate new beliefs”.

But thousands of people joined the CRI de Coeur of consumers.

Southwest posted on Instagram on Thursday, two days after his bombing announcement, stating that “it’s not that we did Luka business,” Dallas Maveryx superstar Luca Donic’s Los Angeles Los Angeles Losy’s Los Angeles Losy’s Los Angeles Losy Los for the shocking February trade for February trading for Los Angeles. By Friday afternoon, the post, which also included information about the change, received more than 14,000 answers, which are usually more than a hundred of the reactions in the account received.

Instagram user Rappid_exposure said, “Taking a screen shot of it as it will be thumbnail to destroy an entire company for Harvard Business Review Case Study.”

Francis Frei, a professor of technology and operation management at Harvard Business School, said, in fact, another company is not possible as a study as a South -West.

“I am sure that this activist is not a case of investors’ arrival and a set of decisions, which will not be around to bear them,” he said. “Great outfits are made over time. It does not take a lot of time to ruin an organization, and I really don’t want an example of this.”

The two-checked bag-free-free policy of Southwest has officially ended on May 28, but now the slogan is still found on the board, the cocktail is printed on the napkin.

Exceptions will be: Customers who have co-branded credit cards of a Southwest Airlines can get a bag for free, and in the service of its top levels, customers (read: pricier tickets) or members of its top level loyalty program will get one to two free check bags.

Whether customers leave the south -west or are just reacting to change, it remains to be seen.

This week, the CEO of Delta, United and Spirit said that they see the opportunity to win over customers who could be away from the south -west.

Many passengers will not have a lot of other options, however, with a lot of consolidation between the American carrier and the stronghold hub, although they may have to enter other airports.

According to Aviation-Detta firm Syrium, the Baltimore/Washington International Thugud Marshal Airport in the south-west has a stake of about 73%, which holds more than 83% stake and 89% stake in San Francisco Bay Ouckland International Airport.

The real test, Harvard’s freie said, “Will the bag change slow the operation of the south-west, with more customers bringing a carry-on bag on the board to avoid the fees of the goods checked.

“I’m just afraid that the cost is being underestimated,” he said. “If they move slowly, it is a real operational loss for the South -West.”

Southwest is already preparing its employees for an attack of customer goods at the gate.

Just after his announcement on Tuesday, Southwest told his employees in a memorandum that the customers would “undoubtedly carry more goods than before.”

Gate agents will receive the mobile bag-tag printer “reduce the need for string bag tag” and the company will design a new carry-on size guide to see the customers can see if their luggage fits as a carry, Justin Jones, Operations of EVP, and Adam decare, senior vice-president of network planning, according to a copy, according to a copy, which according to a copy.

The airline planned to speed up its Boeing 737-800 retrofits and Max aircraft with large overhead compartments.

Frei said that unlike the costco $ 1.50 hot dog, not charging for bags, not a loss leader, something just sells something that only sells in a loss over customers that can buy more expensive, and profitable, items.

As much as it is dear to the customers, the bag policy checked also helped the airline to turn the aircraft rapidly.

“The reason for this is not because it is kind to the customers. This is because it is a sharp turnaround airline,” she said. “If I charge for the bag, you will be more likely to carry more luggage on the board. And when you carry more luggage on the board, I lose my fast turnaround profit.”

In the south-west, it is believed that it is ready to increase the gate-check bag and the goods on the ship.

COO Andrew Wateron said in an interview, “We have a series of work that is running with us with our current operations, so that it cannot affect our turn time.”

Time will tell how it shakes. For now, we have $ 1.50 costco hot dogs.