Jetstar really wants to charge you for everything but the seat

The ritual hoisting of your carry-on bag into the overhead bin on a Jetstar flight? Come February, you’re going to have to pay for the priority to put your bag there.

Jetstar announced today it will reduce passengers’ free carry-on allowance to a single item, down from two, and begin charging a fee for guaranteed access to overhead bin space. Unpaid carry-on items will still be permitted in the overhead compartments, but only after the cash-paying priority travellers get first dibs. Jetstar passengers are now being forced to compete in the carry-on Hunger Games.

What’s galling is that the “new product” – access to the overhead bin – was formerly a standard product. Jetstar’s marketing is a sleight of hand, of sorts.

As consumer advocate Adam Glezer notes: “You’re not paying for a bin. You’re paying for a better chance at one.”

It’s the same plane, same lockers, with nothing added, said Glezer, of Consumer Champion. “They’ve made free space scarce and now charge you for a headstart.”

It’s also a reminder that getting on a plane headed for Bali (nearly synonymous with the Jetstar brand) provides little respite from the reminder of inequality (extra fees, priority boarding, The Chairman’s Lounge) that somehow make the experience of the cost-of-living crisis worse.

Perhaps for this reason, when asked about Jetstar’s change, Victoria’s newly minted premier, Ben Carroll, gave a revealing comment, suggesting almost a resignation with the airlines.

While he opposed Jetstar’s new fee, Carroll said: “Having been with my family on a Jetstar flight recently, can I say I’m not surprised?

“It was hard enough getting on and having to pay for your coffee and everything else,” Carroll told ABC radio.

And yet, as Jetstar was quick to point out, they didn’t come up with the idea of charging for priority access to the overhead bins.

This is unfortunately the norm in Europe, where the profitable airlines are the cheapest.

Ireland-based Ryanair, which does a booming business, developed, under chief executive Michael O’Leary, a business model that establishes that if you want anything more than your seat, you have to pay extra. Jetstar seems to be heading down the same path.

UNSW senior aviation lecturer Ian Douglas said the new Jetstar fee is “pretty much consistent with all the carriers in Europe”.

Douglas said that for many European airlines, the airfares don’t cover total operating costs. “It’s the ancillary revenues from bags, seat assignments, loyalty programs that get the total industry to profit.”

Ancillary fees for baggage and seat selection made up almost a third of Ryanair’s €15.54 billion ($25.5 billion) revenue in the past financial year. Ancillary revenue share ranges from a mere 3 per cent for full-service carriers to 62 per cent for ultra-low-cost airlines, according to airline retail and revenue strategy company IdeaWorksCompany, quoted in Forbes.

It will be cold comfort that Qantas-owned Jetstar occupies a unique place as one of the few successful low-cost carriers owned by a national premium carrier.

But as the cheapest in Australia, it also advocates for low levels of customer service. Chief executive Steph Tully recently said the aviation consumer protections being legislated are “a prescriptive one-size-fits-all” solution that “to be honest, would undermine Jetstar’s existence”.

Glezer notes while Jetstar will copy European airlines’ playbook to charge you for the overhead locker, it doesn’t want to pay travellers’ compensation for cancelled or delayed flights.

“But the same airline told the Senate that Europe’s other rule – paying compensation when they wreck your trip – will drive up prices.

“They want the half of the European model that bills you, not the half that protects you.”

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