American Airlines has announced that starting on flights booked from September 21st, 2018 the price of checked baggage will be increasing:
- First bag: Previously $25 each way, now $30 each way
- Second bag: Previously $35 each way, now $40 each way
In late August JetBlue announced they would be raising the fees for checked baggage, since then United, Air Canada & Delta have all increased their fees as well.
Having elite status solves the baggage fee problem.
Airline collusion. When one does a moronic change they all follow. Churn airline cards and/or fly SW.
Dear government, please regulate
No regulation is required, it’s called competition. You want to avoid bag fees, you fly Southwest (at least domestically).
Not really that easy. Small airports have far fewer choices. So much so that an airline can monolpize certain cities. I’m glad you live in a large city with many options but that’s not everybody’s reality.
Small Airports! How about Atlanta, every time I go there I end up in Delta flight. Newark, every time I go there I end up in United (though Southwest flies to both locations). Where is competition ?
Southwest is awesome. Meanwhile, the legacy carriers are acting more and more like cut-rate carriers and seem to be in a race to the bottom. Much like hotels with resort fees, I’m sure airlines will justify the rising fees by saying consumers demanded them.
Each airline rising prices almost the same time? This starts to feel like price fixing, not competition…
Bullshit. This isn’t a market that is easy to compete in. First and foremost – Every major airport hub is full. How can one compete if they can’t even get space in an airport? Second, the big ones gobbled up all the competition – If there were any real rule of law the government shouldn’t have allowed them. Now we just have an oligopoly that controls 90% of the market.
Take a look at Southwest’s flight maps dimwit – they don’t travel to that many places – it’s not an option for a good portion of the US.
Get status, get a branded CC, fly WN, just pack better, etc. The educated and motivated have many ways to get around these things…
Travel hackers tend to be one of the winners of these rules. These fees help keep fares low and we know how to avoid paying them. Let your seatmate subsidize your airfare, just as they are subsidizing your CC rewards and your bank bonuses.
well said
The fees DO NOT keep fares low — competition keeps fares low. Bag fees and all other fees just pad their bottom line and only benefit the stockholders, not travelers.
Of course competition is the key to better fares, but that is crazy to think airlines don’t include these fees when they attempt to competitively price a route. There are probably several reasons why WN no longer has the best fares, but a big part of it is that other carriers have more flexibility to drop their fares when they can make much of it up with fees.
+1
I love your mindset. I’ve had some real gems as seatmates so this gives me great pleasure.