The battle for overhead bin house on flights is prone to intensify as United Airlines introduced it can improve the checked bag charges beginning Friday. It should now value $10 extra to verify baggage for passengers touring on flights within the U.S., Mexico, Canada, and Latin America.
For the reason that airlines typically transfer in tandem on ancillary charges like checked luggage, this might mark the start of a pattern forward of the busy summer time journey season. Earlier this week, JetBlue Airways raised its costs for checked luggage by $4 to $9 per bag, relying on whether or not passengers are flying throughout peak or off-peak intervals, with the very best price now coming in at $49.
Airways are grappling with larger jet gas costs because the Iran battle has resulted in a worldwide surge in oil costs. Whereas carriers have elevated ticket costs or added gas surcharges to some routes, climbing charges for checked luggage is one other approach to squeeze a bit extra income out of passengers.
HOW UNITED COMPARES TO OTHER CARRIERS
Chicago-based United will proceed to supply a $5 low cost to passengers who prepay for his or her checked baggage at the very least 24 hours previous to departure, which implies the bag price will probably be $45. However till its opponents observe swimsuit, United’s checked bag price is now an outlier among the many large three carriers.
American Airlines likewise presents a $5 low cost for passengers who prepay for checked luggage, so its charges are both $35 or $40 relying on whether or not fliers achieve this. Delta Air Lines at present prices $35 for the primary checked bag. All three carriers cost $10 extra for the second checked bag.
Extra broadly, $35 for a checked bag had turn out to be considerably of an trade norm. That’s the identical quantity that Alaska Airlines prices for baggage and the price that Southwest Airlines applied in 2025 after years of being the only real provider to supply a “luggage fly free” coverage.
FRUSTRATIONS FOR TRAVELERS
Whereas vacationers lastly have seen some aid from the hourslong TSA lines that persevered for weeks amid a partial authorities shutdown, air journey has turn out to be a extra irritating expertise for quite a lot of causes. A way of being nickel-and-dimed by airways solely provides to such frustrations.
On social media, folks have been fast to notice the irony of the timing of United’s announcement of upper bag charges because it got here the identical week the airline applied a serious overhaul to its frequent-flier program. These adjustments, announced in February, imply that vacationers who’ve a United MileagePlus bank card or debit card accrue extra profitable advantages than non-cardholders—together with at the very least two free checked luggage per 12 months and even limitless checked luggage.
A number of folks on the r/UnitedAirlines subreddit noted that the rise to checked price luggage is probably going a transfer by United to encourage extra vacationers to go for one in every of its playing cards. As one Redditor commented: “100%, not a coincidence it goes into impact the day after a bunch of advantages to cardholders got here into impact.”
Whereas United’s latest strikes might frustrate vacationers, they haven’t precisely excited buyers both. The airline’s inventory was already in a droop earlier than the Iran battle started in late February, and shares of United have tumbled greater than 18% this 12 months.
