Pay to avoid plane seats near babies?

Westjet, the Canadian discount airline that plans to partner with Southwest, sent out a questionnaire to consumers to gauge their willingness to pay for a menu of services -- or to save money forgoing them.

One of the questions, first reported by Chris Elliott on his blog, involved whether passengers would favor shelling out $10 to not sit next to a parent with a baby.

The Westjet queries are revealing, I think. They don’t necessarily reflect what kinds of fees all the airlines will go for, but they suggest what kinds of things they all must be at least considering (or are already trying).

Besides the baby question, the carrier also asked whether travelers would consider paying $10 for:

• Being among the first to get on or off planes
  
• Quicker baggage delivery
  
• Priority rebooking after flight cancellations
  
• Complimentary meals/hotel accommodations for substantially delayed or canceled flights
  
• In-flight Web access
  
• Guaranteed space in the overhead bin
  
• In-seat power
  
• Premium snacks/meals
  
• Freshly laundered pillow/blanket set that you may keep
  
• Amenity kits with earplugs, eyeshades, and toiletries
  
• Shorter waits to clear security checkpoints

The carrier also asked questions about which services travelers would be willing to give up in order to save $10 on flights of two to four hours. These included