American Airlines to charge $15 for first checked bag – the future of flying

Yesterday this was the big headline:

Survey: Passengers call airline service ‘dismal’
CHICAGO (AP) — Passengers are more dissatisfied with airlines’ customer service than they have been in years at a time when carriers are charging more and more for tickets and services.

An annual survey being released Tuesday by the University of Michigan found customers giving airlines the worst grades since 2001, with the industry’s overall scores dropping for the third straight year.

Today?

AMR to Cut More Flights Amid Soaring Fuel Costs – WSJ.com
AMR Corp. became the first U.S. carrier to make more moves to deal with still-surging fuel costs, announcing additional U.S. capacity cuts, the planned retirement of at least 75 aircraft and more fees — including charging some fliers $15 for their first checked bag.

The full list of fees can be found here.

One of my long term predictions is that eventually air travel will be like buses vs cars. Well off people will have affordable access to microjets and fractional jets. Everyone else will have to take Greyhound-equivalents of airlines, and those companies will be barely solvent. It seems to me that transporting people just isn’t a very good (easy?) business to be in.