American Airlines became the fifth major U.S. airline to increase bag fees in the last 10 days alone, hiking the cost of checking a bag to at least $45 on Thursday. But they're going somewhere no other carrier has gone to date: Soon, they'll charge flyers with a stingy basic economy fare even more for luggage.
Effective immediately, checking a bag on most American Airlines flights will cost another $10 or more. That means:
- $45 each way for a first bag – or $50, if you wait until check-in or at the airport
- $55 each way for a second bag, or $60 at the airport
- $200 for a third bag – a $50 increase
That's largely identical to the bag fee hikes put in place by both Delta and United recently – alongside JetBlue and Southwest, which also raised fees in the last week and change. But if you buy an AA basic economy ticket, it'll soon be even worse.
Effective for new tickets purchased on or after May 18, basic economy flyers will pay an additional $5 to check a bag. So that's:
- $50 each way to check one bag – or $55 at the airport
- $60 for a second bag – or $65
- And effective immediately, you'll pay $70 each way to check a bag down to much of South America, flying basic economy
- Those same, higher rates will apply to Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Guyana, effective May 18, too
As always, travelers with AAdvantage status can get free bags on American-operated flights, no matter which fare they buy. That's true for co-branded AA cardholders with one key caveat: It only applies to domestic flights (and unofficially, shorter international routes).
On one hand, penalizing basic economy fares with higher bag fees sure beats stripping out carry-on bags from those cheaper fares – a policy American once had and that United still uses. On the other hand, the struggle to find open bin space is going to get much, much worse as a result.
With American pushing up bag fees, that leaves only the recently merged Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines left to go … and in the copycat airline industry, it's only a matter of time before they match. Most ultra-low-cost carriers like Spirit and Frontier have bag fees that vary from flight to flight – those are likely up already.
Jet fuel prices have doubled since the start of the war in Iran and the ensuing closure of the Strait of Hormuz, climbing from roughly $2.40 per gallon to nearly $5 – though recent positive news from the Middle East has brought average prices down to $4.16 as of Thursday morning, according to the Argus U.S. Jet Fuel Index. Fuel is one of airlines’ biggest expenses, second only to labor.
But while airlines have already raised ticket prices – with United saying some fares were up 15% to 20% and Delta's CEO indicating higher fares would stick around through the spring and into summer – increasing fees is an even more effective lever for airlines to pull for a few reasons:
- Airlines have to pay a 7.5% excise tax on the fares they charge, but not on optional fees like baggage or seat assignments
- Those optional fees make airlines' co-branded credit cards – their real profit engines these days – even more alluring to consumers as a way to escape extra fees
- The last two decades of airlines unbundling fares and charging fees have proven that even when fuel prices decline, elevated fees remain unchanged
While an extra $10 or $15 per bag may not seem like much, luggage fees are big business. U.S. airlines collected more than $7.2 billion (with a b) on bag fees alone in 2024, according to federal data. Even a small increase to fees will generate hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenue for each airline.
