Spirit Airlines Charges $100 for Carry-On Luggage

Spirit Airlines bag fee | BCBusiness
Spirit Airlines and several other carriers have significantly hiked baggage fees for passengers over the last few months.

Spirit raises carry-on baggage charge to $100, but other airlines are flying under the radar with similar fee hikes.

As a frequent international flyer, I know firsthand the bite that baggage fees can take out of your wallet. But as gas prices continue to weigh down beleaguered carriers, airlines are finding new ways to charge passengers additional fees while in transit.
 
Spirit Airlines announced Monday it would charge passengers $100 at the boarding gate for carry-on baggage beginning November 6. For passengers flying round-trip on Spirit, that’s a $200 cost to simply carry on a single piece of luggage.
 
How can Spirit customers avoid such an outrageous fee? Carry no luggage at all? That would give new meaning to “travelling light.”
 
The fee is a significant jump from its previous rate of $45, and appears to be a blatant money grab. In an attempt to prevent passengers from waiting to pay until reaching the boarding gate, the airline drops the fee to just $30 each way if booked online and to $45 each way if paid for at a kiosk or the ticket counter.
 
While Spirit is one of the only carriers to charge for carry-on bags, it’s not the only airline guilty of raising baggage fees under many consumers’ radar. According to data collected by USA Today, other major carriers such as Delta and American recently bumped their fees for a second checked bag to $75 and $70 respectively for some international flights.
 
According to the most recent data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 17 of the United States’ largest airlines raked in a total of $2.6 billion in baggage fees during the first three quarters of 2011, and that revenue will only continue to grow as carriers casually add more costs for passengers.