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Recently, I got married (sorry for the heartbreak, ladies). We had the wedding in Cincinnati, which meant a lot of flying for planning (not fun) and flying for a honeymoon (very fun).

All the travel got me thinking about checked bag fees, pillow fees, and the changing expectations of travelers and their perceptions of airlines. Spirit Airlines announcing it would be charging passengers for carry on luggage to go along with the fees for checking bags is a great example of this.

This wasn’t the first time an airline added a fee on top of airfare for something that was once considered free. In fact, many airlines already charge to put a bag in storage on a plane, this just changed the rule that it included overhead bin space as well as the space beneath the plane. The space underneath the seat in front of you was still yours to do what you pleased within TSA guidelines.

Despite this not really being something new, The Internet was outraged. Some would even go so far as to say livid. The thing I realized though was it also could have been a lot better for the airlines with a simple tweak. Call it a discount if you DON’T check a bag.

There’s nothing people hate more than additional fees. And there’s nothing they love more than a discount. Logistically, this would have been pretty easy. When you buy your ticket, if you know you aren’t checking a bag, you choose that option. If you change your mind and do want to check a bag, you just pay the fare difference at the airport. If you decide to carry on, you receive a credit to your credit card. I can count on two fingers the number of times I changed my mind on whether or not to check a bag after purchasing my ticket.

The one thing that stands out is what about that additional fare. Won’t it stand out to people that their fare went up by $100 or so. Nope. That’s the thing about airline travel, every cost is relative. Yeah, $450 one way to Vegas stands out against $89 to Columbus. But you only price against the place you’re flying to. So suddenly $450 to Vegas looks pretty good compared to $700 to Vegas (anyone wanna go to Vegas?).

Getting people to accept those higher fares would have required a normalization of expectations. If you have a route you fly often, you probably would notice that your fare was up $50 on average. Of course, you’re also going to notice that the gate agent is charging you $50 because you want to check a bag. It just comes down to balancing the lesser of two evils.

But think of the longterm effect. Once one airline started charging, they all followed suit. Except a couple. Southwest Airlines turned the bag fees of other airlines into the crux of their recent ad campaign. And it’s made them look pretty good. Imagine if United was able to knock Southwest airlines for not providing a “light traveler” discount?

It really makes you wonder how the airline industry views it’s consumers.

I guess it could be worse. They could charge you to use the bathroom. [cough]RyanAir[cough]