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A handful of airlines — Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, JetBlue Airways and United Airlines — have raised their fees for checked bags this year. But if you plan ahead, such fees are easy to reduce or avoid altogether.
On Friday, United raised its fee to $40 for a first checked bag at the airport, and to $35 for those who prepay online at least 24 hours before their flight — both of which are a $5 increase.
American similarly upped its fees earlier last week. JetBlue also recently increased its checked-bag fee to $45, and Alaska to $35.
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Such fee changes are “likely to impact families the worst because families tend to travel with checked bags,” said Katy Nastro, travel expert at Going, a platform that helps travelers find airfare deals.
Checked bag fees represent big revenue
A checked bag is one stored in a plane’s cargo hold during a flight. While that service was free in years past, it’s now standard for major airlines to charge for checked bags.
Major U.S. airlines started doing so in 2008, levying around $15 a bag, Nastro said.
By late 2023, it was about double for many carriers: $30 to $35 for one checked bag, Nastro said. That means travelers who checked a bag on each leg of a round-trip itinerary could add an extra $60 to $70 to the total cost of their basic fare.
Recent changes from American and United mean travelers could now incur an additional $80 total if they check one bag at the airport.
Rates generally increase for each additional checked bag.
Passengers paid about $6.8 billion in total baggage fees in 2022, the last full year for which data is available, according to the Bureau of Transportation. That’s up 17% from roughly $5.8 billion in 2019, even though fewer passengers flew on U.S. carriers in 2022, Bureau of Transportation data…
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