Delta Amex Cardholders May Soon Get Two Free Checked Bags On Domestic Flights

Aviation watchdog JonNYC says that American Express is improving a key Delta cobrand card benefit. A free checked bag on domestic flights for an airline credit card has become de rigueur. He reports that June 4th Amex Delta cards will offer two free checked bags on domestic flights.

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— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) May 20, 2026

Delta currently charges $45 for a first checked bag, and $55 for a second bag, one each one-way trip. Delta SkyMiles Silver members with a cobrand American Express, and Gold Medallion members, receive two free checked bags. Platinum and Diamond members receive three.

They are not the first to do this. United offers a similar benefit on its premium cards. The United Quest Card gives the primary cardmember and one companion first and second checked bags free on eligible United itineraries (when the ticket is purchased with the card). Chase’s United Club cards also come with a similar benefit.

The Frontier Airlines World Mastercard gives the primary cardholder two free checked bags. Spirit had something similar. American, Southwest and JetBlue cards are one free checked bag on eligible itineraries.

Delta’s innovation is that they appear to be the first major network carrier offering two free checked bags on a broader array of cards. United doesn’t offer it on their mass market Explorer card. Assuming this benefit rolls out as JonNYC reports – the internal snippet he posts does not make explicit that this benefit applies to all Gold cards and above, as opposed to only certain cards (like Platinum and Reserve) – then Chase and United might need to revisit this.

It’s especially striking, though, in light of Southwest moving away from two free checked bags for all customers and not even replacing that benefit fully for credit card customers, while Delta would be introducing two free checked bags for all cardmembers. Having pulled down from Atlanta, though, Southwest might not feel they need to match right away.

I ultimately see this more as a card acquisition play within Delta’s own SkyMiles funnel rather than a strategy to lure card customers away from competitor airlines.

• Delta has the highest remuneration cobrand. They reported $8.2 billion in revenue from American Express in 2025.

• However it’s not clear where growth comes from. They’ve pushed hard to acquire cards from their pool of existing members. That’s why free wifi with membership makes sense, to bring more passengers into the marketing channel for cards. And their Uber and Starbucks partnerships introduce them to new potential card customers.

• Delta introduced a 15% award discount, which United has copied. Delta hasn’t yet copied United’s points-earning structure for flights, where frequent flyers need the airline’s credit card to get full earning benefits from the program.

• But when Delta tried to revamp the SkyMiles program two and a half years ago to virtually require heavy card spend to earn status, customers balked and Delta backed off.

Pitching a second domestic bag fee waiver as a benefit worth up to $110 roundtrip per traveler could be a strong inducement for families to take the plunge on a Delta credit card. As should be obvious, this information was neither provided nor reviewed by American Express.

American introduced the first checked-bag fee on May 21, 2008, at least in the legacy-carrier sense. The fee was $15 for the first checked bag, effective for tickets purchased on or after June 15, 2008. They followed Spirit Airlines, which had introduced checked bag fees the year before. Others quickly followed.

Chase’s Continental Airlines cobrand was first to waive the $15 first checked bag fee (and second bag fee for Presidential Plus cardmembers). That came just about seven weeks after Continental introduced its first checked bag fee on September 8, 2008 and 3 weeks after that fee went into effect for travel on October 7, 2008.