DALLAS-United Airlines is teaming with FedEx Corp. to ship a passenger's bag overnight for as much as $358 roundtrip, betting that some customers will pay the higher cost to avoid taking luggage to the airport.
Travelers would get door-to-door baggage handling and avoid the wait at airport luggage carousels, as well as the airline's fee of $30 to check one bag roundtrip. The new option's cost exceeds the $130 roundtrip fee to check two bags with United, a unit of Chicago-based UAL Corp.
The service, announced in a statement by United, extends efforts by airlines to boost revenue from sources other than tickets. Most US carriers this year have added fees to check bags, and some are charging to reserve select seats, for coffee and soda onboard and for pillows and blankets.
"This whole industry is headed in the self-service direction," Robert Mann of consulting firm R.W. Mann & Co. in Port Washington, New York, said in an interview. "Whether it's bookings or boarding passes or seat selection or meal choices or baggage, it's all your decision to make and your work to get done."
United expects about 1 percent of passengers to use the baggage service, said Robin Urbanski, a spokesman for the carrier. They may be "motivated by the convenience of not having to carry a bag to, from and through the airport," she said.
The service is available to passengers on United flights in the 48 contiguous US states. The cost is $149 a bag each way for flights of less than 1,000 miles and $179 on longer routes.
It's "impossible to make a broad comparison" of the United bag charges with its parcel shipping rates because they vary by weight and size of package, destination and type of service, said Carla Boyd, a spokesman for Memphis, Tennessee-based FedEx. She declined further comment on details of the service.
"While offering customers a new benefit, it also provides United with a new revenue stream," Dennis Cary, United chief marketing and customer officer, said in a statement.
The carrier estimates it will generate more than $1 billion next year from new and increased fees. United last month doubled the charge for a second checked bag to $50, effective for travel on November 10 or later.
Customers can schedule and pay for the new baggage-shipment service as long as 10 days before travel, United said. The bags can be picked up from homes or offices between noon and 6 p.m. or dropped off at a FedEx shipping center. Bags are delivered to the specified location by 4:30 p.m. the next day.
The service might appeal to customers who have several items such as sample cases, instrument cases or outsized bags to ship, Mann said. Still, passengers who travel frequently with such items probably already use a shipping service at negotiated rates, he said. "I'm not sure somebody shipping their golf clubs on a vacation will do it," he said. (Bloomberg)
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