Closed captioning of: Spirit CEO defends carry-on fees
>>>
speaking of
airlines
, today the head of
discount airline
spirit
is defending the
company
's
decision
to start charging for carry-on bags. over the past decade flying in comfort has become increasingly a bigger cost. since
2001
airline meals
have been dropped. most
airlines
now
charge
for snacks. most don't offer free newspapers to read onboard. there are fees for blankets and pillows and now nearly all
airlines
have some sort of
charge
to check a bag into the luggage part of the
plane
. we have the ceo of
spirit airlines
with us and a good day you to.
>>
how you doing,
alex
?
>>
doing okay. said i was going to
grill
you. $45 for a bag to bring onboard that
plane
as of
august
, to put it under your seat or in the bin above you.
>>
actually that's a
little
bit wrong.
>>
good.
>>
anything that fits under the seat is free.
>>
good.
>>
as well as a long list of exemptions including strollers, baby diapers, bottles, coats, things you want to eat onboard, things to read. if it fits under the seat in front of you it's free. it's only the big --
>>
a purse is okay.
>>
if it's got to go in the overhead bin it has the
charge
but it's not a $45
charge
. it's a $30
charge
or $20 if you're a member of our outraged by that but when they're actually sitting down to buy a ticket and they go to their website, their favorite website or call their favorite reservations agent or whatever they do to buy their ticket they'll look at the
total cost
of their travel. nobody buys just a carry-on bag or just a checked bag. they buy a whole trip. when you look at the
total cost
of travel every time we check prices after
august 1st
when we implement this fee the prices on
spirit
after you pay for the carry-on bag, after you pay for checked bags are 30% to 40% less than our competition in total.
>>
you're telling me that you are taking a cut in
money
? i mean, is that -- is
spirit
making more
money
then or less
money
because of this 45, well, no, $30 checked bag fee but lowering prices by $40.
>>
right.
>>
so you're going to have less revenue?
>>
well, it's going to be revenue neutral but more people we expect will travel because the fares are lower. let me tell you how this really will work for us. we're averaging five to seven minutes on average of delay at our
gates
because the bags don't all fit on the airplane. we've got to yank bags from customers and on the jet wing and check them. when we save that five to seven minutes a day times six flights a day times 30 airplanes that's 20 hours a day of new airplane flying without even buying an airplane. we're going to save enormous costs from this. we're going to
save a lot
of customer frustration. and that's where this airline will make up that difference.
>>
it's
clear
you absolutely believe in the vision so we thank you for sharing it with us. i told you in the makeup room i flew
spirit
once to
detroit
and it was a good
“ ”