You knew it was coming and well, it’s here. United Airlines has announced that they will begin charging $15 for the first checked bag.
They’ve also raised the fee it charges to check three or more bags, overweight bags or items that require special handling to $125 from $100, or to $250 from $200, depending on the item, says Yahoo!
United wasn’t shy about the fact that they’re twisting arms.
“With record-breaking fuel prices, we must pursue new revenue opportunities, while continuing to offer competitive fares, by tailoring our products and services around what our customers value most and are willing to pay for,” John Tague, UAL’s chief operating officer, said in a statement.
United Airlines to charge fee to check single bag [Yahoo!] (Thanks, Kevin!)
(Photo: Balmes )
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@Snakeophelia: Exactly. They need to start enforcing those little Plexiglas cubes they used to have by the bridge. No more “the customer is always right” – I am sick of seeing the “all-you-can-lug” instead of simple “carry on,” and the attendants need to stop these pack mules.
BTW, I don’t know if it has been mentioned but there are a fair number of exemptions. Not just frequent flier status but also gov’t tickets.
(Disclosure: I travel one week a month for work, on United from Baltimore to Silicon Valley, and am therefore exempt of all these fees, and if I wasn’t, would just expense them and get 2% back from my AmEx anyway. That doesn’t make it right.)
I can’t understand how the management of these airlines don’t realize that this will cost them more in flight delays than it will give them in fees. As someone who travels frequently (on United unfortunately) for business, I’d say 80%+ of my flights run out of carry-on space, which forces flight attendants to spend 10-15mins taking people’s bags, tagging them, and checking them. Considering most of these flights are late already before anyone steps on board, these 10-15min delays have to be costing the airline money. Of course this situation happens without these ridiculous checked bag fees. I can’t even imagine how bad this is going to be now that people are going to be incentivized to bring a carry-on rather than a checked bag. If nothing else these companies better strictly enforce carry-on rules to maximize available space. I can’t count how many times I see a single person filling up a whole compartment with 2+ bags, jackets, and shopping bags when they’re supposed to have only 1 bag in the overheads. Flying sucks. Ugh.
@ezMoney258: The US Congress has just set aside $15 billion dollars for Amtrak. We get it. Gas prices are up. The airlines are run by a bunch of chimps (much like our government). A reliable system of commuter trains coupled with a local public transportation network is vital to preserving the economy of a city/region. Not to mention that in many cases with cross-country travel, you may as well take the train if you’re just going to end up marooned overnight at the airport.
@GearheadGeek: Using tax dollars for useful things? How dare they! And if the argument is population density, then why don’t we have good train service where the country is dense? Looking at the light pollution maps from taken from space, this country is plenty dense to support inter-city rail east of the Mississippi. One transit method doesn’t have to fulfill every single need. Take the train from DC to Miami, but fly to Waskom, TX (well, Shreveport).
Mind you, we already have trans-continental rail service through the vacant fields. It’s just slow. If it was fast, people would take it. I’d be fine getting from LA to Chicago in 12-15 hours. That’s about what it takes now with the air travel overhead.
Question: If you have already purchased tickets for a flight (e.g. purchased in February for a flight in July), will they still charge you to check a bag? Or charge extra fuel charges? In other words, can they still hit you with fees after your ticket is purchased and paid for? Anyone know?
Well hell. I was hoping they wouldn’t, as I have a lot of frequent flyer miles with them, but fortunately my airport (BWI) is a hub for Southwest, so I know where my travel dollars are going.
My only issue is that United is the only BWI airline with year-round nonstops to LAX, where my dad lives, but I can live with taking SWA out there and back.
Where is my comment?
@sir_pantsalot: Well that’s the problem! We’re talking corporation. Just like a fat government, it’s easier to increase taxes and prices than it is to cut down.
People will still pay taxes and people will still pay the money to fly. Sooner or later, alternative transportations will rise from the ashes and this will not be an issue.
But, I’m not sure if I’d hold my breath.
@syndprod: Good question – I’m in the same situation – flying United on Sunday. My mom broke her leg and is using a wheelchair for the trip (it’s her granddaughter’s graduation or she would simply not go). We’re attempting to cram stuff for three of us into one bag to cut down on what we have to lug thru the terminal. I wonder if they will charge us for checking the wheelchair, too? Is that discrimination against the disabled???
And between the three of us, all women, we are packing one bottle of shampoo, hairspray and bath supplies, but makeup is a personal item that you don’t share for sanitary reasons. I’m afraid our toiletries alone with take up one bag!
They can’t make you pay any for a wheelchair.
I don’t have a link, but the DOT said something after American announced this same plan, that they couldn’t charge customers a new fee after they’d already purchased tickets.
The baggage info page on United’s webpage probably lists medical check-in info.
The only way to solve this is to Nationalize the airlines and airports and pay People Postage based on weight. Everybody pays the same. You pay a fraction of a cent per pound per mile traveled. Different rates for different flights, if you want. All fees are added in a la carte, so you know exactly what you’re paying for.
Of course, I’m also a fan of the idea of making everyone pay taxes in cash to help people understand exactly how much they’re paying out and the purpose.
@Kajj: well that’s bullshit. My wife just went to boston for a week, she fit all her clothes in a single carry-on, and didn’t check a thing.
I’d have more respect for the airlines if they were to be more transparent in their business. Tickets should show what the actual cost is, not “Fly with us for only $99*” (*plus $500 in fees.)
If they’d be honest about how much it costs to fly instead of nickle and diming everybody with fees here and fees there, I don’t think there would be as much furor as there is now.
With the new baggage fees, more people will take carry-ons. But the cabin’s can’t possibly fit a carry-on for every customer, and when you factor in delays and whatnot, nobody should be stupid enough to fly WITHOUT a carry-on containing at least a change of clothing etc.
@hwyengr: You’ll note that I never said the problem was speed or distance. I’m sure that now that it costs real money to fly, there’ll eventually be some modicum of usable rail service. Laying track capable of supporting high-speed rail from Chicago to LA isn’t going to happen this summer, though. Most of our rails wouldn’t support sustained 125 mph travel, much less the 160 mph or so you’d have to average to get from Chicago to LA in 14 hours or so with the inevitable stops in Denver and Vegas. Never mind the freight trains on the SAME tracks.
If we had put the same kind of investment of engineering and infrastructure into the rail system that we did the air travel and interstate highway systems, we’d have 300-mph trains linking at least the major metropolitan areas all over the country, with no grade crossings and first-class sleeper cabins with 200 channels of satellite TV. Instead we have the red-headed stepchild that is Amtrak that’s a second-class citizen even on the rails, never mind how secondary it is to car and air travel in most of the country.
I love traveling by train. I don’t think the American public would have been willing to pay the taxes necessary to buy right-of-way and build infrastructure for a euro-quality high-speed rail system when they could fly cross-country for $99. Now that kerosene costs real money, we can start playing catch-up. Maybe in 20 years you’ll be able to take that Chicago-LA Intercity Express in 14 hours or so.
@sean77: Oh, okay. I guess I’ll shut my little mouth and get back to cooking, then.
I am absolutely amazed at all the whiners out there. I work for an airline and can tell you that most of us are not millionaires. Since 9-11 I have had my vacation cut, my insurance payments increased and my pay cut. The airlines are losing money on every single passenger. 8 years ago 15% of the cost of the ticket was for fuel. It is now 40%. The cost of groceries have gone up. Gas to fuel your car has gone up. Everytime airlines try to raise fares to where they actually should be no one will buy tickets. There is too much seat capacity. At some point airlines that file for bankruptcy should actually go bankrupt. Prices would then increase because there would be fewer seats and more demand for them. Analysts are saying that domestic flights need to be cut by 20 percent. But that will mean that fewer people will be able to afford to fly.
$15 to check a bag –> I don’t check a bag
no checked bag –> you get searched as a “suspect” terrorist
full cavity search with nothing found –> I’m sorry you missed your flight, but there is nothing we as the airline can do.
@Phillip1952: Ha! If it works for Rollercoaster Tycoon….
Avoid the CHARGES
I’m a Premier member of Uniteds Mileage Plus because of quite a few international trips lately. I received an e-mail today that said I was NOT subject to this policy. In fact I can check 2 bags free of charge. Without Premier status its $15 for the first bag and $25 for the second. It further stated that anyone traveling on my reservation -like my family would not have to pay the charge either.
How can you get Premier status and avoid these charges if you aren’t lucky enough to jet around the world? Simply go to Mileageplus.com and sign up for their card. The first time you use it, you get 25,000 miles – enough for a free domestic flight AND Premier status so no extra charges.
I’m pasting in the e-mail I got from United for you to read below.
E-mail received from UNITED.COM
Our best customers are exempt from first and second bag fees
Dear Mr. XXXX XXXXXXX,
We want you to be among the first to know about changes to our checked baggage policy and revised fees for excess, oversized and overweight baggage and special items.
Today, we are announcing that for tickets issued on or after June 13, 2008 for travel on or after August 18, 2008, a $15 service fee will apply to check one bag for United Economy® travel within the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Canada. As previously announced, a $25 service fee will apply to check a second bag.
As a valued Premier® member of Mileage Plus®, you will continue to be exempt from both first and second checked bag fees.
It is our pleasure to inform you that you and any companions traveling with you on the same reservation can each still check two bags free of charge, up to 50 pounds (23 kg) per piece. As always, you can skip check-in lines at the airport by using EasyCheck-in OnlineSM, even when checking bags.
We would like to remind you that additional baggage fees apply to check more than two bags, or if any bags are oversized, overweight and/or considered special items. These fees are also changing and the revised fees will apply to tickets purchased on or after June 13, 2008 for travel on or after August 18, 2008. Please visit the Oversized, overweight and excess baggage and Special items sections on united.com for details on these fees.
Also, if you are traveling in United First® or United Business®, you are invited to be among the first to board your flight so you can find ample space for your carry-on bags, by using specially-designated Premium Boarding lanes marked with a red carpet. Or choose to board at your leisure, knowing that you’ll have front-of-the-line access at any time. Premium Boarding is now available at nearly 60 airports system-wide. If you are traveling in United Economy®, you may still enjoy priority boarding early during the boarding process with Seating Area 1.
For details on our baggage policies and frequently asked questions, you are invited to visit united.com/baggage.
As always, we thank you for your business and look forward to welcoming you onboard soon.
@Kajj: Don’t try to talk sense here with regards to gender issues. Unfortunately this is not Jezebel.
The airlines are morons at PR; they should instead raise all their prices by $15 and offer a discount for passengers who don’t check baggage (or maybe a $15 credit towards your next flight, or a mail-in rebate, or some other mechanism to save them even more money). Same result, but they come off looking like nice guys instead of bad guys.
@sporks:
Sure, I’ll put $20 on December 9, 2002. Oops, looks like you owe me $20: [www.usatoday.com]
I can’t imagine how it would help them this time around; they already raped the retirees, the pension funds, the unions, and pretty much everybody they owed money to.
As a child I was fed, clothed, educated, and well-traveled because of a union job at United Airlines, and I wouldn’t fly them today if they were operating the last flight out of Baghdad.
@GearheadGeek: Assuming all goes to plan, California will operate it’s high-speed rail network in the next 10 years or so. 220 mph trains linking Sacramento to San Diego, downtown LA to downtown San Francisco in 2.5 hours. My dream is that other regions see the success that it will be, build their own regional rail networks, and eventually interconnect them.
Of course I don’t expect to see this for decades at best, but I’m 27. I can wait.
http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov
I wouldn’t be so pessimistic now, though. Infrastructure construction is about the only true manufacturing industry that hasn’t been outsourced. Once the economy goes even further down the toilet, I think there’s going to be a great boom in federal funding for construction since it creates so many jobs, from the engineers to the guy holding the “slow” sign. Of course there’s not going to be an improvement this summer, but I don’t think it’s out of the question over the next couple of decades.
fly Virgin America.
They don’t have those BS fees.
@vitonfluorcarbon:
unfortunately, the 25000 miles you earn when you sign up for that credit card are not miles that qualify you for elite status. Those are miles you can spend (like for tickets, etc), but not miles that qualify towards Premier. *Those* miles you have to actually earn, butt in seat, as they say.
So I bought tickets in April for a September trip to Hawaii. I bought Economy Plus for my wife and I. It upped the price of the tickets about $225/piece.
I’m waiting to hear that sometime between now and September United will start cramming extra seats onto the airplanes, effectively eliminating Economy Plus, thereby screwing those that paid for the extra legroom in advance.
I got this idea after that post about Northwestern Airlines and its BS premium economy seating. Keeping my fingers crossed….
@lihtox:
Unfortunately, I think it’s easier for the airline systems to charge people extra amounts versus give them refunds. Imagine the new refund infrastructure that would have to be created to put your plan in place — many, many people would be getting refunds. I’m not saying I disagree — it’s a good idea, because people psychologically like discounts much more than surcharges, even when they’re effectively the same thing. But from a practical point of view, I don’t think airlines have the luxury to put this kind of thing in place at the moment.
So basically United Airlines is the Air Canada of the United States? Air Canada charges $25 for a second checked luggage bag now and has a fee for just about everything else you could ever think of, not to mention their horrible “customer service”.
@kepler11:
Well, that’s a bummer. I thought I could actually help some people with this charge that they are imposing.
You can still rest assured that they CAN not have your luggage arrive when you do all the time, even if you are there 2 hours ahead of time. I know airlines want to do the best for customers, but I think it is an impossible dream.
PS… my butt is sore from being in that seat. I would gladly pay $15 per trip for a checked bag to not be on a plane for 10-12 hours in coach. At least Lufthansa serves free beer and wine on the flight.
I don’t mind paying but I DO mind that more people will be carrying on way too much luggage. I’m already sick of the carry-on juggling that people have to do because they’re bringing way too goddamn much on board.
@rpm773:
Economy Plus is a big deal to United fliers, and it can be a product worth the slightly higher cost, especially if you need the leg room. For Hawaii, definitely. They are not going to be compromising or changing that any time soon, as long as they stay in business I am willing to bet. Plus the fact that airlines can’t just change their plane configurations faster than say, years, even if they wanted to.
One tip in the future — instead of shelling out $ per ticket each time for an upgrade to Economy Plus, if you fly with them often, you might want to buy their Economy Plus access membership for ~$350(?), which gets you and a companion into that section for a year on all your travels.
I bought UAL tix in May for a July trip, so I escaped the charge!
I agree with others here though, my biggest travel pet peeve is those ass-hats taking up 1-2 overhead bins with all their crap. Laptop bag, jumbo purse bag, garment bag… WTF! How about 1 bag per person, and check the rest like everyone else. There ain’t enough cabin room for everyone on the plane to bring that much crap on. This new charge is only going to aggravate that situation unless they limit the # of carry-ons. (please oh please)
Ok, rant over. Whew.
@anniefannie: I don’t have a problem with the airlines trying to generate more revenue, I abhor the way they’re doing it. If it costs more to move people across the country, raise your fares. Don’t try to hide the costs in upcharges. There’s a minimum level of service that’s expected when buying airline tickets. Transporting a modest amount of luggage is certainly part of that minimum. Why does an 8-hour “domestic” flight from Honolulu to Chicago not have meal service, while a 7 hour flight from Dulles to London does? If I wanted to be nickel and dimed, I’d fly a budget carrier. I always pay extra to fly a mainline carrier, but now I’ve got no reason for it.
Just build the fuel cost into the ticket price.How much would let’s say a 5$ increase on EVERY ticket sold bring in.
To me the airlines were already on the ground by the late 90s.2001 just buried them.
There are so many little ways that would help generate revenue when you buy the ticket.For example if you want what they call a meal-offer it for let’s say 2$ at purchase time,otherwise 4$ after that.Offer 2 checked bags for 10$ at time of purchase,after that 15$.I hate dealing with all those add ons but unless they just build the cost into EVERY ticket the nickel and diming will increase.
I don’t begrudge an airline their profit. But trying to disguise this profit by shunting off to a separate fee every single service other than hauling your carcass, living or dead, from point A to point B, is not the way to do it. OK, I can accept that checking a second bag is a “luxury” for which some people should pay extra. But doesn’t ‘most everybody check at least one bag??
I guess my rule of thumb would be, if the service is something that at least 80% of your customers will require, build the cost into the price of the ticket.
And particularly, if it’s something the customer has absolutely no control over whatsoever, making it a surcharge is just disingenuous. (“Fuel surcharge? No thanks, I just bought a ticket that should take me to my destination. I don’t need any extra fuel.”)
An “extra charge,” if it’s not possible for me as a consumer to reject it, and still receive the basic service, should not be an “extra charge” — the expense should be factored into my base price.
this makes perfect sense. i travel internationally on average 2 times a month and am able to pack everything i need in a carryon + laptop bag. this includes toiletries and makeup. just learn to pack!
This is why I love SOUTHWEST AIRLINES and why there airline is doing just fine while these others are ‘crashing’. http://www.iflyswa.com Fly them if you don’t want to pay ridiculous fees!