Tag Archives for checked bags.
An American Airlines baggage handler at Charlotte Airport thought texting a coworker a bomb threat would be a funny prank—but it quickly turned serious when police arrived, arresting him on felony charges.
An El Al flight from Los Angeles to Tel Aviv departed without 140 checked bags after they were vandalized with “Free Palestine” stickers, triggering a security alert and lengthy inspections at LAX. Authorities suspect an inside job by airport employees, and passengers landed in Israel without their luggage.
An influencer is sparking debate by claiming airlines should reward thinner passengers with free checked bags, arguing that total passenger weight—including your luggage—should determine ticket prices. While appealing at first glance, this provocative idea ignores airline economics, practical logistics, and legal realities, ultimately proving itself more effective as culture war fodder than actual policy.
Millions have watched the same gut-punch: a checked suitcase rolls onto the baggage claim carousel already popped open, dumping clothes out in public while everyone stares. It’s a perfect illustration of why checking bags is a time tax and a trust exercise you usually lose—so pack lighter, keep what matters with you, and treat anything you do check as disposable.
Southwest killed its “Bags Fly Free” promise, but travelers aren’t giving up that easily. A clever workaround buried in Southwest’s vacation bundles still lets you check two bags for free — even after the airline took the perk away.
Southwest Airlines is going to start confiscating passenger bags at the gate on almost every flight once they begin charging for checked bags in two months.
For the first time in company history, Southwest Airlines let go of 1,700 non-union employees at its headquarters. Employees were banned from corporate headquarters and firings took place online.
Now, in addition to major business changes like selling seat assignments and charging for checked bags, the airline is going to be outsourcing its skycap service.
With Alaska eliminating check-in kiosks and telling customers to print their bag tags at home, these would be a great step towards the future – if they could get the cost down (or subsidize them for regular flyers).
Often gratuitous bag checking – the can of beer, the loose deoderant – is done by passengers taking advantage of their free baggage allowance. Of course, just because you can doesn’t mean you should! But who’s in for showing up at an American Airlines ticket counter, insisting on checking 5 liters of water for free?
If I’m checking a bag, I rarely bother checking in online in advance. It just doesn’t save any time. Airline processes are just too cumbersome. There are some airlines in the world that have a ‘just drop the bag and go’ process, but most do not. It really shouldn’t be that hard.
American Airlines has finally made a simple improvement to their bag check process that’s actually a nice time-saver. When you check in online, and opt during that check-in process to check bags, customers can walk up to a kiosk and go right to ‘print bag tags’ rather than walking through a repeat of all of the steps.
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 »
