Low-cost airline buzz wants more of us to abandon the Joan Collins school of travel (mountains of cases) and become toothbrush and undies man/woman. If we take hand luggage only, big savings on fuel and baggage handlers can be passed on to customers, it argues. The company is dishing out £10 vouchers to the carry-on-bag brigade on selected flights, to encourage the idea.
The downside is that if tight packing catches on, those who want to bring big bags (over 7 kilos) may have to pay for the privilege. Buzz already charges £12 to carry a pair of skis and plans to do the same for bikes.
The idea of charging people for the services they choose sounds pretty logical to me. If I go into a restaurant and have just a starter and a glass of wine I don't want to pay the same as somebody ordering three courses and a bottle.
Low-cost airlines have radically changed the way we travel. Many of us can afford to do a lot more of it. Before deregulation of air travel in Europe a few years ago, a handful of state-owned national airlines controlled all the good routes and could charge what they wanted. I remember waiting till I was 13 before my parents could afford to put me on a plane - and when they did (on a French exchange) the return fare cost more than £100.
Now everyone's at it. My 23-month-old daughter spends a good portion of her free time on buzz being shuttled between grandparents in Germany and London and my other half tracks down the buzz bargains for the coming weekend on the internet.
My 21-year-old sister went to see her mates in Dublin for £26 return; my dad popped over to Biarritz, to drive with a friend who lives in France down to the Guggenheim in Bilbao, for a similar price. My goddaughter had a shock when her grandparents from Scotland turned up at her second birthday party for a slice of cake and a cuppa before getting straight back on easyJet on cheapie tickets.
Many stag/hen nights have become low-cost airline affairs. In a taxi queue at Stansted last weekend I met a man with big circles round his eyes and the pink tinge of two days in the sun on his way back from a stag weekend in Benidorm (care of Go which now flies to Alicante, once the preserve of weekly charters).
So what if you have to pay to check in a suitcase! If taking hand luggage only and going hungry for a couple of hours means you can see the world, isn't that better than paying higher airline prices and travelling once in a blue moon?
