Baggage fees

U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana, last week proposed legislation that would allow airline passengers to check one bag for free on each flight.

The legislation would also guarantee passengers can bring carry-on bags at no extra charge.

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano recently suggested airlines should let passengers check one bag for free to reduce the carry-ons packed into overhead bins, the Los Angeles Times reports. She said carry-on bags slow screening and thus increase costs by $260 million a year.

This is the kind of congressional idea that will poll well with frustrated travelers -- while guaranteeing unintended consequences.

Consider state efforts to ban "ATM fees." When banks were forbidden to recover the costs of offering this convenience, some simply stopped allowing anyone but their own customers to use their machines -- hardly the intended result.

Yes, air travel was more pleasant back when the industry was more heavily regulated. Since airlines had little room to compete on fares, they advertised free hot meals and other amenities. What Americans forget is that higher fares meant far fewer people flew. After adjusting for inflation, customers now pay 40 percent less to fly then they did in 1978, according to the Air Transport Association.

Now that price competition is the major driver for air travel bookings, airlines compensate for rising costs by eliminating freebies while "giving their customers more choice," argues Nicholas Calio, president of the ATA. "Making choices and paying for services you use and value is common practice across industry because it is fair and equitable."

In fact, the current practice of allowing last-minute checking of oversized bags which make it to the aircraft door -- usually free of charge -- creates an incentive for passengers to "give it a try." It might make more sense for the airlines to charge for large or numerous carry-ons, as well.

Another perverse incentive for some airline practices might be removed if baggage checking fees were subject to the same taxes as air fares.

But a gargantuan and unaffordable federal bureaucracy is hardly going to shrink away if Congress continues to practice such micro-regulation. Let the industry set its own prices; let free competition reign; let the buyer decide.