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The rise of baggage fees incentivizes passengers to carry on as much luggage as possible. It seems that the fight for overhead bin space is getting more intense, and it is taking longer to complete the boarding process. I would have thought the airlines would have wanted to incentivize passengers to check bags, as that makes the whole process more efficient, so I would have expected them to assess fees on carry on bags.

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iirc, we had a discussion here about this here some time in the past.

jetblue and southwest don't charge for the first bag specifically because of this. their processes are optimized on the assumption that you're going to check one bag. it helps them to get more flights in per day, when people can get to their seats and they can get the plane in the air faster.

it might actually do well to provide a ticket discount if you check a bag, in order to ensure that there are limited delays. but that would require an airline to care, and most don't seem to.

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