For years, most travelers have grumpily accepted airlines’ ever-increasing baggage fees. But the president of LugLess, Aaron Kirley, presents a more affordable option.
For a fee that is usually less than the cost of checking a bag, LugLess will ship your luggage to your destination. Simply enter your travel details on the company’s website, print and attach your label to your bags and drop them off at a participating FedEx or UPS. Rather than haul your bags yourself through the airport, you’ll find them waiting for you at your destination hotel or Airbnb.
Aaron says he first got into luggage shipping in 2005, when he founded a premium service called Luggage Forward. He acquired LugLess after seeing it on Shark Tank in 2013, and relaunched it as a more affordable variation in 2018.
Aaron credits several factors with helping the business take off. First, airlines have been on a fee-raising spree — in spite of losing the luggage they charge so much to transport.
Second, the millennial audience LugLess mainly serves has embraced major shifts in the travel industry, thanks to the likes of Airbnb, Uber and Kayak. A new way to move their luggage fit right in.
While airlines continue to cling to their baggage-handling fees, Aaron says LugLess has nobler priorities. “We're trying really hard to be disciplined and remain laser-focused on our customers’ needs.”
Featured Challenger👨 Name: Aaron Kirley
⚙️ How he challenges: Aaron is the co-founder of premium luggage-shipping service Luggage Forward and president of LugLess, a more affordable mass market version.
🧳 Company: LugLess
💎 Noteworthy: LugLess and its original founder Brian Altomare appeared on Shark Tank in 2013. The sharks didn’t invest, but the episode helped with brand exposure. “They ran the episode almost every month for about six years,” Aaron says. “There was always a spike in website traffic when it aired, sometimes as many as 8,500 visitors in less than a month.”
🔍 Where to find Aaron: LinkedIn
🔍 Where to find Lugless: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Challenger Wisdom 💡 Luggage has always been a drag“I think we all know that the process of checking bags has always been really inefficient. You haul your luggage to and from the airport, you stand in the check-in line, wait at the baggage carousel. We thought there must be a better way, so we set out to create a more efficient travel experience.”
💡 Challenging ingrained customer behavior“The airlines have the majority of the luggage just because that's the ingrained travel behavior: drag your bag to the airport and check it. We're really trying to change behavior and get the word out about alternatives. Some people go to FedEx or UPS directly, but that's complicated and not really tailored towards luggage — and we’re cheaper.”
💡 Joining the travel shake-up“We knew that if we could figure out a way to make luggage shipping more affordable, it would have broad market appeal. This all came together as other services were starting to change the way people traveled, like Airbnb, Uber and Kayak. At that same time, the airlines were gradually increasing their baggage fees. And so the timing and the economics really made sense for us to start thinking about launching a mass market brand.”
💡 Unexpected turbulence“Shipping luggage turned out to be very challenging and it was very difficult to change people's travel behavior. We spent 10 years investing in technology, building travel partnerships and mastering the complexity of shipping luggage globally.”
💡 Catering to the new kind of traveler“Our target customer base is the modern millennial traveler. They don't use travel agents, they go online to book travel, they stay at Airbnbs. They’re developing a new way to travel and they're using all these new tools and features and services that are available.”
💡 Straight from the shark’s mouth“Mark Cuban gave us what we thought was some really good advice. He said it needs to be cheap, fast, easy for mass adoption. That feedback has guided us over the years.”
💡 Even airlines use LugLess“Even though baggage fees are a meaningful source of revenue for the airlines, there are a few obvious opportunities for us to work together. Some flights have weight constraints that result in baggage yield problems. In 2019, we actually worked with two airlines to help them on flights that had these issues.”
Top quotes from the episode Aaron Kirley:
Quote #1
“I'm probably one of the only people that likes to see fees go up at the airport.”
Quote #2
“People love LugLess when they try it, it really transforms their travel experience in a way that few services can. They come back and they write great things online about us, and help us grow our brand.”
Quote #3
“I think you'll see baggage fees continue to creep up — some airlines are even starting to charge for carry-on bags. Conversely, LugLess is relentlessly focused on trying to reduce our costs.”
Quote #4
“The pandemic has opened a lot of doors for us. With travel being down so much, companies are looking for ways to get guests or passengers to use them, and LugLess is one way to make the travel experience a little easier.”