It’s Thursday! That means we’re grabbin’ a cup of coffee and talking about my opinion on anything I find amusing that particular day (my favorite topic).
Spirit Airlines, who should really just change their name to “We Will Do Anything To Alienate Our Customers,” announced last week that they plan to charge $100 to give you the pleasure of placing a bag in the overhead bin.
If it’ll fit under your seat or on your body, you’re still good.
Now I’ll have to wear six layers of clothing on the plane instead of three.
Like cars, I feel an airplane ride is a way to get from point A to point B. That makes me a low-cost whore. If Spirit’s fees are still less than everyone else when you include the $100 bag fee, you’ll find me on the first flight out of Dodge. I’ll be the guy with the big, fat happy (and because of all the clothing…sweaty) grin on my face.
Spirit’s goal is to keep costs low. I understand that, so I’m taking this one in stride. As the above USA Today article states, other airlines are quietly following behind the Spirit-hatred shield. Other fees fill me with rage FAR more than this particular nuisance, because they make zero sense to me, except “this is an easy way for us to piss you off while we rip money out of your pocket.”
5) Credit card application or annual fees. There may be more on the way. On a recent Consumerism Commentary podcast, Flexo and Matt Schultz interview Jay Frosting of InvestingAnswers.com,about some alarming news around credit card application fees. The executive summary: Watch your credit card statements carefully. Fees might be rising soon.
4) Piled on mortgage fees. Origination charges? Appraisal fee of $350? Ouch. Ask for a complete list of mortgage expenses before signing on the dotted line.
3) Ticketmaster “convenience” charges. This one is awesome in a “you must be joking but you totally aren’t” kind of way. Ticketmaster charges me a CONVENIENCE FEE for printing tickets at my house. I made it more convenient for them (they don’t have to do anything at all) and they charge me more. There’s a bean counter at headquarters giggling to himself while I’m buying tickets.
2) Bank fees. Teller fees. Statement fees. ATM charges. I know. Enough already. We all know that banks don’t get it.
I love this series of Ally Bank commercials and their discussion of fees and bad customer service. These say it all:
1) …and my most hated fee of all….hidden financial product fees, like 12b1 fees (mutual funds), mortality and expense charges (annuities), sales loads (funds and variable insurance products).
I know, I know. Mutual fund and insurance companies have to make money somehow. Just be brave like Spirit and tell me upfront how you’re going to skewer me to make a profit.
What are your least-favorite bullshit fees?
Joe is a former financial advisor and media representative for American Express and Ameriprise. He was the “Money Man” at Detroit television WXYZ-TV, appearing twice weekly. He’s also appeared in Bride, Best Life, and Child magazines, the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Sun-Times, Detroit News and Baltimore Sun newspapers and numerous other media outlets. Joe holds B.A Degrees from The Citadel and Michigan State University.
Incidentally I closed out my Spirit $9 fare club membership this week. it was a money losing for me to fly with Spirit airlines. I need to write a post about it now.
That sounds like the perfect review for your site, SB. Can’t wait to read it. Good news…now you won’t lose money or ride the cattle car. Man, those Spirit seats are close together!
Ticketmaster fees are annoying. AJ, how about we open up a company that competes against TicketMaster and offer the arenas better service?
We could charge half the fees and make a killing!
Cha ching! I’ve got $50 for start up money, if we need it.
My least favorite is the “upgrade fee” from cell providers like ATT. I got my wife a new crap phone and signed another contract, but they wanted to charge me $18 for the privilege of being their customer for another two years. I called and complained and thankfully they waived it.
I forgot about the “upgrade fee” but it reminds me of another. How about the “activation fee” to turn on electronics. $35 to flip a switch? Must be a big switch….
I think the fee for luggage is ridiculous, especially for a carry-on. In Canada we only have 2 airlines. Air Canada charges $25 per suitcase, unless it is a carry-on. Westjet easily uses the luggage fee as a marketing campaign, saying fly with us and your luggage flies for free.
It sounds like Air Canada operates like the US majors, while Westjet is similar to Southwest (just interpreting for my little brain….).
I can’t believe Spirit is going to charge $100 for a carry on. I’m never taking them!!!!!! That stinks
AVERAGE JOE: WONDER FULL!!! I found your column when I googled : financial adviser with a heart
I live on Bali, Indonesia….I travel. I remember my first flight on TWA. I received silver wings! I was given an amazing meal! I was treated like a queen…at 8 years old. I had no baggage…I was too young.
Thanks, Tara. It’s incredible how google can link our kooky site to that search term. I’ll have to send them $10.
I remember the silver wings days and the tours of the cockpit. I was fired up a few weeks ago when I flew and received complimentary peanuts. Sure, there were only about 4 in the bag, but that was above and beyond. In your area I’ve heard Singapore Air is still awesome.
I hate the check-in baggage fee. I have never flown Spirit to my knowledge and don’t intend to.
If you ever have to, just bring a shoehorn, Roshawn. It makes no frills airplane rides look luxurious.
I’m guessing you guys don’t have a thing called easy jet over in the US? haha
I’ve heard between Easy Jet and Ryanair you have this sort of thing covered. True?
Fees are annoying in general. But the $100 carry-on fee Spirit Airlines is tacking on is just ridiculous. The whole point of a carry on is that it’s small-ish and will fit neatly into an overhead bin or under your seat. I understand that some people take advantage of this and try to board a plane with huge suitcases, but that’s what restrictions are for. Are they punishing everyone for a few people’s mistakes, or are they just money-hungry?! I’ve never flown Spirit Airlines and now never will.
I’ll go with money hungry, Little House. I read a piece a few years ago that reasoned (with statistics) that instead of checked bag fees, airlines should charge to carry on bags. That would solve some of the cash problems airlines experience plus get rid of all the stupid overhead compartment wars. Never did I think that an airline would just go ahead and charge for both.
I haven’t flown Spirit Airlines, so I can’t comment on their service of price levels. Assume they’re a budget airline. What matters then is lowest total cost. Doesn’t matter if it’s buried in the airfare, or upfront in baggage fees. At least you have the optional of mitigating it by dressing up like the Michelin Man.
Ouch! $100 to put my bag in an overhead bin? That sounds crazy ridiculous. Granted it’s probably because I always need to find someone to help me put it up there, being short has it’s drawbacks. I think next time I’ll take a page out of the Average Joe handbook…do these 10 layers of pants make my butt look fat?!
Agreed to all five! I discovered a new one this weekend….service charge fees at fancy restaurants. They make it look like a gratuity but then the server gets 10% to zero of it. I guess there’s actually a major lawsuit out about it right now.