Airline fees stacking up on planners

By Jennifer Garrett

With all the news about fees for checked baggage, food and beverage, and now carry-on luggage, meeting planners have new budget considerations when planning events.

Spirit Airlines, a super low-cost carrier, got the conversation about airline fees going again this month when it announced it would start charging $20 to $45 for carry-on bags.

“We have been very generous to the airlines — taking their increases in fares, decrease in food and service, even paying for checked bags — but there’s got to be a stop to this,” says Sharon Seay, CMP, executive director of National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association. “Associations and business entities have to put a stop to this. If we don’t, we will get to a point where we won’t be able to have meetings. We’ll have to have teleconferences or people will just drive.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) introduced legislation to ban airlines from charging a fee for carry-on bags, hoping to prevent the trickle down effect many fear. American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, US Airways and JetBlue Airways promised Schumer they would not charge for carry-on baggage.

“I’m certain if other airlines do follow suit [with a carry-on fee], it will impact how I get important items to meetings,” says Lisa L. Dyson, CMP, director of conference services for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. “Normally I carry the last-minute or very important items on with me … it may actually be cheaper to overnight them if this trend continues.”

Checked bag fees already affect the National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association budget. “Because the amount of time staff and employees have to be at our event is very long, baggage has become one of our big ticket items,” says Seay. She managed to work in the cost of shipping the staff’s baggage with other event materials into the event’s shipping agreement because the association wasn’t meeting its drayage limit for its annual conference.

The SeatGuru by TripAdvisor website has shipping rates versus checked bag fees and rate and delivery time comparisons among shipping providers. It’s a useful resource for some planners who are going to have to add one more item to the to-do list before events: checking to see if it’s cheaper to pack or ship.