American, Delta, United all raise checked baggage fees

Passengers wait for their
luggage after arriving on American Airlines flights at O’Hare
International Airport on November 30, 2017 in Chicago,
Illinois.

Scott Olson/Getty
Images

• American
  Airlines has joined Delta Air
  Lines and United
  Airlines in raising the fee of one checked bag from $25 to
  $30, and of a second checked bag from $35 to
  $40.  
• The change in price begins for American Airlines
  tickets purchased on Friday, September 21. 
• This trend of adding additional costs to passengers in
  the form of ancillary fees is standard industry practice and
  has been used for some time. It is known as unbundling.

American Airlines has joined Delta Air Lines and United Airlines
in raising the fee of one checked bag from $25 to $30, completing
a hat-trick for the world’s three largest airlines and showcasing
the industry-wide trend known as
“unbundling.”

The change in price begins for tickets purchased on
Friday, September
21.

With American Airlines’
announcement on September 20 to raise the fee on their
first checked bag to $30 and a second checked bag from $35 to
$40, the Fort-Worth-based carrier has quickly caught up to their
national rivals.

United
announced new prices for its checked bag fees on August
31. A few weeks later, on September 19, Delta
declared that they would be raising their checked bag
costs as well. American waited only one day to join their
competitors. 

For all three carriers, fees for a checked bag are increasing
from $25 to $30 for a first checked bag, and from $35 to $40 for
a second checked bag.  

American Airlines website says
that this is the first change in its domestic checked bag fees
since 2010 and that they are simply following similar changes
made by other airlines.

While Jet Blue
set off this scramble on August 27 with their initial $30
first checked bag price hike, this trend of adding additional
costs to passengers in the form of ancillary fees is standard
industry practice and has been used for some time. It is known
as unbundling.

Unbundling is the practice of separating various costs of
services like baggage check, security check, seat assignments,
meals, wi-fi use, and early boarding into their own price points.
In short, charging little fees for different elements of
travel. Unbundling
first began in the late 2000s when airlines
recognized the necessity of gaining extra revenue to counteract
the higher price of crude oil, which had
hit $132
a barrel in the summer of 2008.

According to Bob Mann, President of RW Mann & Company, an
airline analysis firm with over 40 years of experience in the
industry, American
Airlines was the first to charge $20 for a
baggage check.

“With that out of the box pretty much everybody else did
it,” Mann said. “It was the first big gasp of how to get
unbundling started.”