Everyone loves to complain about luggage fees, but other than flying Southwest or JetBlue, there hasn’t really been a way to avoid them that makes economic sense. I mean, sure, you could FedEx your suitcase, but that ain’t cheap. UPS has apparently been watching luggage fees rise and now has its Luggage Box to try to steal some of the market for luggage shipping. It’s got a ways to go, but I suppose this is a step in that direction.

The luggage box is absolutely not revolutionary in any way. There are no special rates for transport at all. It’s just this:

So who cares? Well, it’s all about weight. UPS charges you by the pound to ship things, and this weighs a lot less than your usual suitcase. In fact, they say it can save about 7 pounds on average. The big one is 26″ x 16″ x 12″ and has a suggested retail of just under $18. Of course, you can use it multiple times, so that cost is nothing.

If I need to ship 50 pounds over to my in-laws in Indiana, it’ll cost $55.85 for this box. It it was only 43 pounds (minus the 7 pounds the extra luggage weighs), then it’s $49.08. Getting it under $50 makes it more attractive for sure.

There is one enormous problem. This is sent via UPS Ground. So you need to send it days in advance of your arrival. If you’re going from LA to Minnesota in winter, that won’t be a problem. You don’t exactly need your winter clothes here in SoCal, but in general you need your stuff. So I’m not quite sure how they’re going to get over that hump. That same $49 shipment costs $113 to do it in 3 days, $193 to do it in 2 days, and $224 to do next day. That’s not competitive at all.

Besides, the airlines are charging you $25 for the first bag or $35 for the second, in general. So you have to pay a premium for it take the better part of a week to get to your destination. At least you don’t have to lug that bag around with you, but I personally can’t imagine paying more for it to take that long. It’s just not likely to work out.

Now, if you need to check more than two bags, this starts to get much more interesting. That third bag will cost you over $100 and the fourth one can be $200. In those cases, shipping becomes a no-brainer. Besides, if you have to check that much stuff, you would have to be able to part with at least one or two of the suitcases for a few days.

So, UPS has done a good job of trying to make this more attractive, but I would be surprised if it ended up getting much new business for them. It’s more of a gimmick than anything else. Still, if airlines keep raising fees, this will become more and more attractive.

When it comes to bag fees, Southwest is always fighting an uphill battle. Yes, customers love the fact that they don’t charge fees for the first two checked bags, but those pesky Wall Street-types have long believed that they’re leaving money on the table. Now, Southwest is committing itself even more by getting a tattoo. Seriously. (Sort of.)

The rumors have long been out there that Southwest would have to give in and start charging bag fees. For the longest time, Southwest said it was the right thing to do, but the airline didn’t promote it much and couldn’t really show any gain. In recent months, the marketing team has really ramped up the Bags Fly Free campaign to beat it into people, and it’s worked. Southwest now says it has gained share, and its stellar unit revenue gains shows some real strength. Much of this is from better scheduling, but, I think the halo off the marketing campaign has undoubtedly helped.

Now, like a teenager who wants to prove his commitment to something, Southwest has decided to get a tattoo showing that it remains even more committed than ever. Take a look:

That’s right. At least 50 airplanes will get this decal (ok, so it’s not really permanent) with an arrow pointing to the belly promoting free bags. There will also be 1,000 bag carts to remind people that bags fly free. (Fortunately, the shirtless dudes will not be deployed to every airport.)

I like this move. It’s cheap and easy advertising that hits people right when they’re angriest. Sure, at places like Dallas/Love and Chicago/Midway where Southwest nearly has a monopoly, there won’t be very many people on other airlines who will see this, but at all the other airports in the system, it will target anyone who looks out the terminal window or the window from their airplane.

For many people, that’s the time when they are most unhappy about having had to pay bag fees, because it’s fresh in their minds. So something like this can have more of an impact at that point. Whether it turns into more business for Southwest is unclear, but does it really matter? This isn’t an expensive campaign and it certainly helps hammer home the airline’s commitment to its promise.

Last year, I wrote about how US Airways had started scanning bags at planeside. When I was in Phoenix with the airline recently, I decided to stop in and get an update on how things were going. They’ve made a lot of progress since then, and there are some exciting new developments.

US Airways has long had bag problems (remember Philly back before the merger?) but they’ve been achieving record low mishandling bag rates in recent months. Most of this can be attributed to an improved system. US Airways now scans bags when the come on and off airplanes at every airport with the exception of a couple European stations due to technical issues. This now also applies to US Airways Express flights.

When the bag is scanned, the information is sent to a central system and there are real-time monitoring systems, built from scratch by US Airways, that make things run smoothly. I saw the system, but they weren’t willing to let me post a screenshot since it’s proprietary.

You can watch this system from a desktop or from the scanner itself. It shows for every flight how many bags have been checked in and how many bags have been loaded onboard. If a big is missing, you can click on it and see where it was last scanned. It has the person’s name, the tag number, etc. If you’re in the hub waiting for it to connect, then you can have it tracked down immediately. Since it’s in real-time, it’s easy to see the problem bags.

When I was sitting there, we looked at a flight heading to Mexico City. It had 173 bags planned, with the split between local and connecting bags shown as well. As bags are checked in, they show up on the screen. As they are loaded on the plane, that gets recorded as well. This is also used for bags that are checked at the gate, so now all bags will be loaded into the system.

As we sat there, I noticed that there was one bag from one person that was loaded and the other was not. I asked aloud about that – was it lost? Within just a minute, that bag had been loaded as well and it clicked off. Very cool.

The system is also tied in to the baggage tracking system NetTracer that’s used when you file a mishandled bag claim so it makes it easier to get information. What’s next? They’ll be automating more of the mishandled bag claim system, but more importantly, they’re talking about notifications.

Eventually, you’ll be able to get a notification when your bag is loaded or possibly if it doesn’t get loaded. This is fantastic for setting expectations. If your bag is loaded, you’ve got peace of mind and you’re happy. If it’s not, you’re unhappy but at least you know. You’ll also no longer need to sit and wait at the carousel, hoping that yours will be the last bag out. Instead, you can file a claim right away and be on your way.

Great stuff from the US Airways people here.

Whenever I see discussion of an airline simplifying fees, it usually means that they’re jacking them up. Alaska, well, ok, so they are jacking up the first bag fee, but they really are simplifying as well. They had a slew of announcements yesterday, so maybe they were hoping some of this would get buried. Nope.

At left, you can see my handy chart. Basically they’re raising the $15 first bag fee to $20 and then lowering all the other fees for bags #2 and beyond. It does simplify things, and it’s nice to see them stop requiring your first born to check that fourth bag. That one was just really messy to collect.

So why are they doing this? I think it’s a safe bet that they expect to make more money. Let’s assume that a lot more people check a first bag then a second or third or fourth. That increase on the first bag fee will pay off, but it will be partially tempered by the decrease on later bags. Or will it? This could be a test to see if lower bag fees will result in more bags being checked. I suppose we’ll know the answer to that if this policy holds or if it ends up changing. Besides it seems like Alaska hates to raise a fee without giving something in return. I give them credit for that, but I’m not so sure I’m buying it this time.

The first bag fee going up by $5 doesn’t really bug me. It’s actually still lower than the $25 other airlines charge. And I suppose it’s nice that they brought the bag fees down for more than 1 checked bag, but honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever checked more than one bag in my life. But wait, there’s more.

Remember how Alaska had a baggage guarantee? They were the only ones to institute one when they added a charge for checked bags. If your bags weren’t at the carousel within 25 minutes, you were entitled to either 2,500 miles or a $25 credit for a future flight. With this new baggage structure, that’s changing. Anyone want to guess what’s happening?

That’s right. You’ll now get a 20 minute guarantee instead of 25 (who cares?), and you’ll get a $20 credit or 2,000 miles. They really like the number 20, I guess. Anyone skilled with numerology know if there’s some secret meaning here?

So where does this all leave us? Um, well, it’ll be different for everyone. There’s some good, some bad, and some that just doesn’t even matter. Hooray, that means there’s something for everyone!

Wondering why I’m posting on a Sunday? Well, it’s to welcome Washington Post readers to the site. See, today I had an opinion piece in the Post entitled Don’t let bag fees make you nostalgic. Airlines’ golden age wasn’t so golden. What spurred this article? Spirit’s carry-on fee, of course. But that was a broader piece on the industry, so I thought I’d bring it over here for a little more discussion.

The backlash on this carry-on fee has been heated, to say the least, but the hottest air of all is coming from the US Senate, and it’s ridiculous. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) led off the insanity by saying this was horrible, and now he has joined with six other senators to introduce the BAG Fees Act. Reading through their release, they clearly haven’t actually looked at Spirit’s fee.

For example, Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) had this to say:

Carry-on luggage is where people keep items essential to their health, work, and safety like laptop computers, medications, food to eat on the plane, baby formula, eye glasses and other items that need to be kept close at hand. These are personal items that airline passengers should not be charged to keep with them in the cabin.

Thanks for playing, Senator, but everything you mentioned there remains free on Spirit. The airline is still allowing a personal item (like a purse, briefcase, etc) and things like diaper bags are free too. So, to help senators from embarrassing further, I’ve put together this handy guide:

To all my first time visitors, thanks for stopping by. I’m here every morning Monday through Friday, so come back often. And if you like what you see, you can sign up to receive your daily cranky via email for free.