Firstly the US....

Flew across the US and watched the morons that they can be best described literally trying to force a square peg into a round hole..eventually on one flight I actually got up and asked the moron how more times they where going to try and jam the bag into the overhead..eventually the brain dead cabin crew member thought.......yeah.......... it don't fit ... it better go underneath.

The charges......... they are like the banks.
The banks encouraged you to use your credit cards and with time, not to go into the branch and with that came the inevitable staff redundancies........ then bang.........in came all the charges for everything and there was/is not much you can do about .........except now, the banks are getting people back because the public has had enough so lets cut the crap.....
The airlines advertise cheap fares with carry on only and have done for the last few years. Now you are used to travelling light, they want to get into your pocket because it is all going onto the plane in the cabin........
Greed simple greed and whoever does not do this will be the big winner.....go Qantas, Jetstar, Virgin...........
Charging for the toilet. No big deal........you are near sitting on a near toilet seat now when you fly with these budget carriers so big deal.......
The cabin crew will have to carry more $ 2 coins........

so is Virgin Blue

per other thread

Whats the point of charging for Carry On ?

1) Make more money for the airline.

2) Make customers think about how much they try to carry on.

Speeds up the boarding/deboarding process because people are not blocking aisles putting 2/3 bags in the overhead compartment (no one bothers using the space under thier feet)

It subconciously will reduce the carry ons, with effects such as less total baggage being carried by the customer, which means there is less weight.

Once they get this online checkin working soon I will give them 6 months before they expect us to pay for the service, same as Ryanair..

How long until we start seeing in flight lotteries, seems to have worked well for FR.

Maybe if the airlines had better baggage delivery instead of waiting at time up to 30 minutes for luggage people would not carry on so much overhead luggage.

Sarah strict enforcement of the current carry on baggage rules would also go a long way to eleminate this problem.

But tell you what Harry hit the nail right on the head. We get forced into doing things, revenues drop then all these extra charges come out. Another good reason to stick to the legacy carriers I say.

Sticking with the US, the so called "legacy carriers" charge for all check in bags, entertainment, food, etc. The biggest LCC, Southwest, allows two checked in bags for free, and another big LCC, JetBlue, offers one free checked in bag, free inflight DirectTV (you need your own headset) and free snacks on board. So in my opinion, the major LCCs in the US domestically offer better all round service than the legacy carriers.

But the amount and size of carry-on baggage brought on board is ridiculous in the US. On an American Airlines domestic flight I was on, all of the overhead lockers were overflowing and the flight was near full. One passenger who boarded late brought on one of those oversized roller suitcases and he couldn't put it above in the lockers and he couldn't fit it under his seat, so he sat it on the middle seat. The flight crew did nothing.

I don't agree with Spirit Airlines' carry on fee and I hope Tiger doesn't follow suit.

A general note that has been lost: Spirit is charging people for bags that will need to go in overhead bins. Keep it under your seat and you'll be fine. Those affected will be those with larger roller bags and also those who bring more than one bag on board.

Forced into doing what things?

With regards to revenues dropping, there are very interesting statistics showing how the prices of flights have decreased--not even accounting for inflation--over the years. You can attribute some of that to more efficient operations, but for many carriers it means smaller profits. Thus there is a need to make up the loss.

With regards to checked luggage, there is a cost involved: fuel to fly the bag and people and equipment to move it.

I fly without checked luggage quite often and agree with airlines (and thus sway from most legacies) who say if you don't need something you shouldn't have to pay for it. Would you pay a restaurant $20 to have an extra chair at your table that no one is going to sit in? Same principle.

Sure, I could pay an extra $50 to fly Qantas over other carriers on MEL-SYD, but why not save that $50 and go out to dinner or do something else?

Disclaimer: this assumes your backyard trees aren't growing money. ;)

Absolutely, and there's one of the greatest ironies in modern aviation.