Tag Archives for checked bag fees.
Luggage shipping services haven’t ever really seemed quite ready to go mainstream even though they’ve been around for many years. However a Shark Tank contestant company pitches that you save both time and money shipping with them. Here’s the math, how it works, and the risks involved.
The Biden administration plans to crack down to require refund of fees when bags are delayed for over 12 hours.
The Department of Transportation proposed rulemaking is expected to cover refund of other fees for services that an airline charges for but doesn’t deliver, such as payment for inflight internet when the service is unusable.
Leisure travel isn’t just vacation, it’s also “visiting friends and relatives” or ‘VFR’ for short. And those passengers tend to check a lot of luggage. What’s more, the mix of passengers traveling has changed. Business travelers don’t tend to check nearly as much luggage. So the same number of passengers as before on a plane comes with more luggage now than it used to.
American Airlines has adjusted some baggage fees in the Mexico, Caribbean, and Latin America market, perhaps most notably increasing third checked bag fees to $200.
American Airlines today has increased first check bag fees on flights between North American (or Central or South America) and Europe on basic economy fares from $60 to $75.
Last month JetBlue increased its first checked bag fee to $35 but kept it at $30 if prepaid online. Now United has announced they’re matching the move on domestic and short haul Latin America and Caribbean routes.
With United getting rid of bag sizers at the gate and higher bag fees may exacerbate the ‘bring everything on board’ mentality.
For tickets purchased starting January 28th, 2020 American is adding a fee for second checked bags for flights to and from South America. This applies to travel to and from Argentina, Brazil, Chila, Peru, Paraguay and Uruguay. It does not apply to Colombia, Guyana, or Ecuador.
Meanwhile customers departing on late flights from Peru, be prepared for a significant inconvenience.
A year and a half ago JetBlue was first to raise its first checked bag fee to $30 and other U.S. airlines followed. Now they’re a leader in fees again, raising their first checked bag fee to $35. However they’ll still charge $30 as long as the fee is paid online in advance (prior to the online check-in window opening).
Ariline Weekly founding editor Seth Kaplan writes at The Points Guy that Southwest Airlines may be doing worse at New York LaGuardia than at Newark, and they pulled out of Newark. He says they shouldn’t pull out of LaGuardia, though, and shouldn’t have left Newark.
The challenge of course is that at this point, given slot controls at two of the three New York airport and shortage of gates, it’s incredibly difficult to re-enter the market if you leave. Do they need to change their business model to succeed?
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
