5 ms·

This article is pretty interesting. One point he makes is one that I have long wondered about: why on earth do airlines not treat baggage the same way UPS and F

by JunkDNA 17y ago

This article is pretty interesting. One point he makes is one that I have long wondered about: why on earth do airlines not treat baggage the same way UPS and FedEx treat packages? Going one step further, I'm not sure what the logistics would be, but I wonder if the airlines could sub-contract baggage to people like UPS and FedEx. One of my big fears traveling is that my bag is going to disappear for days on end in the system. If UPS was willing to guarantee hotel delivery for my stuff by 8PM on my arrival day, I might take it, even if I had to pay.

wallflower 17y ago
FedEx and UPS have a vastly simpler model for package distribution compared to airline baggage distribution. Everything goes to a central hub and is consolidated and sent out directly to the regional distrbution center. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoke-hub_distribution_paradigm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoke-hub_distribution_paradigm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldport_(UPS_air_hub) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldport_(UPS_air_hub)
- jrockway 17y ago
  So do passengers, except on Southwest. If you fly American, you will become very familiar with ORD or DFW. If you fly Delta, you will become very familiar with ATL. If you fly USAir, you will become very familiar with PHX or CLT. Etc. Even Southwest tends to try to funnel passengers through focus cities like MDW, but their network is largely point-to-point. If hub-and-spoke is what would make baggage distribution efficient, WN should be the least efficient.
  - wallflower 17y ago
    Yes, I was fascinated when I learned that they have to fly all the planes back at the end of the day to the ORD hub so they can be ready for the next day of flights. Which means when planes are delayed and they can't make it back to the mother hub - it puts strain on their system.
    - jrockway 17y ago
      American? I know for a fact that they don't do this; I often fly the 6:10am flight out of PHX, and the plane for that flight sits at PHX overnight.
      - wallflower 17y ago
        You're right. A better answer (types of planes, types of routes, lions, tigers, bears, oh my!) http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/607944 http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/607944
imajes 17y ago
a good deal of express packages travel in the airplanes you fly on too - UPS, Fedex et al frequently buy cartons of luggage to stick on commercial passenger routes. So it's entirely possible your luggage would get there in the same plane you would too. :) The difference is, luggage that goes with you on an airplane has different rules than packages sent via a delivery company; you can thank the TSA and FAA for that. The assumption is that a bag belonging to a passenger is more likely to blow up than a package sent via ups. Plus, the lag time between shipping from destination is different - in an airport, you got an hour or so to get it from the check in desk, to the airplane. That's an hour in which the bags have to be sorted, scanned, loaded and then driven to the plane, where they're inserted into the hold. I would imagine that couriers like UPS do it differently: arrive at destination, sort into priority bins, scan, etc... it would be much more oriented around tipping point load - when there's enough in x, do y.
jamesbressi 17y ago
@JunkDNA If I fly an airline that charges for luggage, I analyze the fees vs. shipping with UPS, FedEx, etc. and will actually use FedEx or UPS to ship my luggage to my destination. You can look at UPS and FedEx map zones to how long it will take for your "package" to arrive from your departure zone to your destination zone. I have sent luggage in a box earlier than my departure to my destination using the lowest cost shipping and have 99% of the time had it arrive the day I was to arrive--the other 1% it comes a day early and in that one case I called the hotel to inform them and they accepted and held the package for me.
callmeed 17y ago
I did some development for a startup back in the .com 1.0 days that was doing just this. Name was "air valet" and they would schedule UPS/FedEx to pick-up your luggage and have it at your hotel before you arrived. It never really took off. They targeted it at executives/first-class travelers and, at the time, most airlines didn't charge for bags. Might work a little better now, who knows.
- olefoo 17y ago
  How would you trial this as a minimal viable product to gauge whether that is the case? Would an ad to a coming soon landing page work?

by JunkDNA 17y ago

wallflower 17y ago

FedEx and UPS have a vastly simpler model for package distribution compared to airline baggage distribution. Everything goes to a central hub and is consolidated and sent out directly to the regional distrbution center. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoke-hub_distribution_paradigm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoke-hub_distribution_paradigm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldport_(UPS_air_hub) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldport_(UPS_air_hub)

jrockway 17y ago
So do passengers, except on Southwest. If you fly American, you will become very familiar with ORD or DFW. If you fly Delta, you will become very familiar with ATL. If you fly USAir, you will become very familiar with PHX or CLT. Etc. Even Southwest tends to try to funnel passengers through focus cities like MDW, but their network is largely point-to-point. If hub-and-spoke is what would make baggage distribution efficient, WN should be the least efficient.
- wallflower 17y ago
  Yes, I was fascinated when I learned that they have to fly all the planes back at the end of the day to the ORD hub so they can be ready for the next day of flights. Which means when planes are delayed and they can't make it back to the mother hub - it puts strain on their system.
  - jrockway 17y ago
    American? I know for a fact that they don't do this; I often fly the 6:10am flight out of PHX, and the plane for that flight sits at PHX overnight.
    - wallflower 17y ago
      You're right. A better answer (types of planes, types of routes, lions, tigers, bears, oh my!) http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/607944 http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/607944

imajes 17y ago

a good deal of express packages travel in the airplanes you fly on too - UPS, Fedex et al frequently buy cartons of luggage to stick on commercial passenger routes. So it's entirely possible your luggage would get there in the same plane you would too. :) The difference is, luggage that goes with you on an airplane has different rules than packages sent via a delivery company; you can thank the TSA and FAA for that. The assumption is that a bag belonging to a passenger is more likely to blow up than a package sent via ups. Plus, the lag time between shipping from destination is different - in an airport, you got an hour or so to get it from the check in desk, to the airplane. That's an hour in which the bags have to be sorted, scanned, loaded and then driven to the plane, where they're inserted into the hold. I would imagine that couriers like UPS do it differently: arrive at destination, sort into priority bins, scan, etc... it would be much more oriented around tipping point load - when there's enough in x, do y.

jamesbressi 17y ago

@JunkDNA If I fly an airline that charges for luggage, I analyze the fees vs. shipping with UPS, FedEx, etc. and will actually use FedEx or UPS to ship my luggage to my destination. You can look at UPS and FedEx map zones to how long it will take for your "package" to arrive from your departure zone to your destination zone. I have sent luggage in a box earlier than my departure to my destination using the lowest cost shipping and have 99% of the time had it arrive the day I was to arrive--the other 1% it comes a day early and in that one case I called the hotel to inform them and they accepted and held the package for me.

callmeed 17y ago

I did some development for a startup back in the .com 1.0 days that was doing just this. Name was "air valet" and they would schedule UPS/FedEx to pick-up your luggage and have it at your hotel before you arrived. It never really took off. They targeted it at executives/first-class travelers and, at the time, most airlines didn't charge for bags. Might work a little better now, who knows.

olefoo 17y ago
How would you trial this as a minimal viable product to gauge whether that is the case? Would an ad to a coming soon landing page work?