I'm skeptical that baggage fees have a lot to do with people bringing carryons on board. Business travelers typically don't personally pay for checked luggage and many are exempted anyway because of frequent flyer programs. Yet most just take carryons for the flexibility and to save time--and because they usually know how to pack efficiently. When I walk through the departure level, most of the people I see lined up to check vast piles of suitcases look mostly like families traveling.

Anecdata, but I have gone from 100% checkin to almost 100% carryon because I'm simply not interested in paying one more fee. I'd rather have someone handle my bag for me, especially if the alternative is schlepping it through multiple connections, but the airlines have incentivized people to carryon instead. It absolutely slows down boarding and fills overheads. This is probably why Southwest still allowed 'free' bags; they turn around planes quicker than anyone else.

Then there's always the jerks who bring their entire matched luggage set as "carry on" and then bitch and moan that nobody will move their stuff in the overhead for them, and act offended when anyone heaves a sigh and rolls their eyes as they trudge up and down the aisle looking for somewhere to shove their bag that they know won't even fit anyway. "I fly all the time, I know it will fit" -_-

>The flip-side is with baggage fees, passengers have incentive to sneak bulky baggage into the cabin, or carry the absolute maximum allowed amount of carry-on. This ends up forcing people to gate-check their luggage, because the cabin runs out of space. This costs time and annoyance.

Right, but that's an artifact of only charging for one of two "cost-adders", when they're close substitutes.

It doesn't refute the general point that it makes sense in general to charge more for things that add legit costs; the problem here is that they're not being consistent about it. Per previous discussion, charging for carry-ons seems to make more sense than charging for (a moderate allowance of) checked luggage:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13311317

You're right. Charging for baggage is reasonable, but the in-cabin consequences are pretty annoying. I'm actually surprised that it's worth it, given how much extra time it must take to turn around an airplane.

The "right" answer would, of course, be to charge for carry-on luggage too. I think some airlines are starting to do this now. I bet their customers won't be happy though.