The problem is bag fees.

The public, despite its nostalgia for the glory days of plane travel that the masses could never afford, has made it undeniably clear that price is the only metric that they care about at the end of the day. They endlessly sift through flight listings for the cheapest flight(s) to the destinations they want to go to, and it leads to carriers like Spirit or Ryanair that charge you for everything but the oxygen in the aircraft cabin while offering the lowest sticker price before fees.

Planes aren’t cheap to operate and airlines will extract profit from you one way or the other. If they’re forced to compete by offering “fake” airfares to display that don’t include bag fees, seat choice, or connection times, then that’s what you’ll get to see when you search for your flight and that’s what you’ll click on, they hit you with the fees after you’ve already initiated the first steps of booking.

People are still cheap AF, despite somehow expecting first class service between Fort Lauderdale and Charlotte for $95, and will cram everything they can into a carry-on or roll-aboard (not roller board, please. Pet peeve) to avoid having to check a bag or an additional bag.

This also unfortunately leads to all those maddening crowds at the gate blocking the concourse aisles because people want to cram all their shit in the overhead bins and not under the seat in front of them - compounded by the already tight seat spacing and the fact that people carry a ton of shit - because they don’t want to gate check a bag. They crowd the gate so they can get aboard first.

I work for the airlines and I consider bag fees to be evil because they cause so many frustrations for everyone involved except the accountants. But, unfortunately the public only cares about price, so this is the monster they helped create.