As of Oct. 29, 2014, West Jet will charge a new fee on checked-in baggage. Shortly after this was announced, Air Canada imposed the same fee.
After being a frequent flyer for the last 11 years, it has been interesting observing how each additional cost has affected the overall performance of each airline over the years. The quality of goods and services on flights is going down.
Airline companies have embraced this theory that by adding these additional charges, customers will be getting exactly what they paid for. Inversely, if they don’t want a particular service that option is also available to them.
Even though complimentary services were convenient for the customers, airlines have realized that by charging for them, profit will increase. I do agree with this, but customer satisfaction will decrease.
However, since all airlines imitate one another’s downgrades, other than choosing the lowest-cost option, options are pretty much limited. Therefore, business is not much affected.
Most of their revenue (more than 40% estimated) is going to come from these additional fees, some of which will be inevitable. Their strategy will consist of masking these ancillary fees with their slightly lower costing flight tickets. For example, their new restrictions on carry-on luggage sizes will end up forcing their customers to check in their baggage.
Although I am not fond of all of these changes, I do see how from the business perspective this will be to their advantage.
Sources:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/spacex-cellphone-prices-and-netflix-business-week-wrap-1.2787064