US Airways Raising Bag Fees By $5 On Most Flights
Providing that you check your bags online at least one hour before your flight, US Airways says it will begin charging $20, instead of $15, for the first checked bag and $30, instead of $25, for the second. Those who choose to check bags at the airport can expect $25 for the first and $35 for the second, an increase of $5 per bag.
Elite frequent fliers, first-class passengers, and active-duty military personnel are exempt from the fees.
Here's a lovely chart they have provided for your edification.
Baggage policy [US Airways]
(Photo:balmes)
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Comments:
Is it sad that my first reaction was "Good! It's only going up by $5!" Sigh. Yay, Southwest.
I flew on Continental a few weeks ago, and we were the only ones that checked bags.
Seriously. We went down to the baggage claim and nobody was there. The belt came on and a grand total of two bags came out.
I thanked the loaders through the flaps.
I just bought a ticket with them knowing this for the holiday season. Even with the bag fee I saved $20 over the closest ticket. And almost $70 over another airline that was flying close to the same time.
I still hate paying this stupid fee though.
Wonder when the bag fees will catch up with the ticket prices? If the fees get high enough are the airlines going to start limiting how much clothing people are allowed to wear on the plane?
Heavy clothing fee. Excess clothing fee. Non-checked bag fee. Unessential items in cabin fee.
Unless there's an actual ocean between me and my destination I'd really rather drive now. It'll cost me in other ways, but I won't be paying bullshit baggage fees and I'll know my bags will actually get to my destination when I do.
I'm curious about the international/transatlantic fee isn't that governed by more than a single US airline to change rules/fees? It's very disconcerting especially since after 9/11 the Post Office discontinued sea mail and for those of us who move/have extended stays abroad what affordable alternatives are left? To buy everything new (or used) and then have to leave it each time, isn't that just as much as an environmental damage, should the airlines then be required to recycle my stuff?
Seems like yet another reason to not fly this bunch of goniffs. Really these legacy carriers deserve to go out of business if they keep up with this.
These fees will just keep on coming unless people vote with their feet. We no longer fly anywhere I can drive in less than ten hours. (Actually, it's a lot less expensive and a lot more pleasant than flying, particularly if you have two or more people in the car.) Only when the airlines find that their customers have vanished, and they're flying planes not only without checked baggage but also without passengers, will this nickel and dime stuff stop. The airlines are making billions from these fees and they're not going to stop.
The airlines have these fees totally backwards. If they were smart, they would charge for carry-on bags (other than the personal item), and not charge for the first checked bag. That would help reduce the long delays in boarding, and the fee would end up being paid by business travelers who expedite their arrival by not checking in bags, instead of casual travelers trying to save a buck.
There have been plenty of times where I've carried on a bag onto a United flight, only to have it checked in because the overhead bins are full. And they don't charge in those circumstances.
@bendee: - totally agree with you! I really do not mind if my flight is an hour longer is I am saving $55 each way in in luggage fees!
I travel to trade shows so I always have tons of luggage with me.
Well, seems like eventually they are gonna lose all business relating to the checked luggage. So far:
-lost luggage is fairly common
-can't lock your stuff so that TSA or whomever can check it
-stuff gets stolen and rifled through frequently
-if stuff is stolen or damaged, no one accepts responsibility
--to top it off, you are paying THEM for the privilege of being potential victims of theft. And this fee keeps getting bigger and bigger.
Seems a bit like an unsustainable business model...
enough with the "I'm going to fly Southwest" idiocy in response to stories like this (which are themselves a little bit pointless).
Flying Southwest will not fix the legacy carriers because somehow the lack of your business got them to change. There is a structural difference between airlines like Southwest/Frontier/Jetblue, and American/United/Delta, etc. And if you don't realize what that means, then please learn a bit more about the airline industry before you ask why American/USAir can't be more like Southwest.
Southwest cannot fly you to London. Southwest cannot fly you to Tokyo. And I don't just mean because they don't fly there right now. I mean that if they tried to do this with their friendly, fewer-fees, no-frills business model, they would fail. They would quickly realize that the high costs of flying long-haul to many destinations fed by a hub-spoke network require (yes, require) extracting every single possible dollar out of passengers who can afford it. That you have to charge change fees, baggage fees which no one until now was ready to pay, booking fees, just to stay alive.
I'm not excusing the majors for providing surly "service", fees up the wazoo, and high prices -- those are partly the legacy of the labor market for airliens. But you might realize that there is a structural reason that all the major airlines charge the fees that they do, and have the fares they do. It's not because they want to be crappy -- smart people have tried to fix the legacies, and do you think that not a single major could come up with a way to avoid charging baggage fees? Are they so stupid that they couldn't figure it out? No, it's because they have to do it.
The major airlines in the US are not going to be fixed just by you flying Southwest, or "voting with your feet". The best thing that could happen is for one or two of the majors to consolidate (yes, that means higher fares in the short run, consumers), and entry of new carriers prohibited, so that airlines could build up some reserves to operate comfortably, and bring back the service that will make you happy in the long run.
The just steels my resolve to cram all my stuff into my carry-on suitcase. I'll be packing quite a bit less for my trans-continental flight in 2 weeks!
@Sheogorath: Ok, I'll be the one to ask/comment: I realize that unless it really was just you 2 and the crew it is unusual, but how many people would you guess were on the plane? 10? 20? 100? Because once you start getting into the higher double digits, then you're talking real unusual.
@BridgetPentheus:
You're allowed 50 pounds of stuff in your 1st bag for no charge. Is that not enough? If you're going for long term stays abroad or permanent moves -- then maybe the airline wants you to think about whether there are more economical ways to ship your stuff. Besides, if you're moving long term, is $50 too much to pay for an extra 50 pounds of stuff in your 2nd bag?
@H3ion: Sounds good to me. Now only if I was employed and had the money to have a car and go somewhere, I'd be planning my driving vacation.
@valkyrievf2x: As for the locking your stuff problem, buy & declare a flare gun and you'll have your stuff examined with you there and then never opened again without you being present (since you'll have your own keys for it). Somebody posted a video link here about what he does for the shows he goes to and I have to say I was impressed. I watched the whole thing.
My dad's in Sarasota, so USAir is the only way for me to fly direct, non-stop from DC. I've been lucky with their prices, but boy am I glad put off buying my ticket until after I could take advantage of the recent Morning Deal of a free trial of Silver Preferred status for 90 days: [www.bestfares.com] (Free upgrades, baggage fees waived, etc.)
@nybiker: Airliens will be what airlines take out on your house or vehicle so that they can be assured of full payment of all their fees: baggage fee, loan application fee, recorder's fee, notary fee, payment of fee fee.
/snark
@kepler11: I don't think that the point of those who say they'll fly Southwest instead is to teach legacy carriers a lesson. It's a matter of personal economics. Perhaps it is better stated as, "When a Southwest flight is available, I'll take it instead of being nickeled and dimed by US Air." You are correct that SW cannot fly everywhere that legacies fly, but for domestic travel SW is a fairly common option.
Just fly 25,000 miles or 30 segments a year on one alliance, its really not that difficult, especially if you are in a non-hub city.
When a Southwest flight is available, I'll take it instead of being nickeled and dimed by US Air.On all non-business flights I've needed, I've always gone with the cheapest airline, regardless of which one it is. In virtually every case, that choice wasn't Southwest because they were always more expensive (by a fair margin). Personally, I won't start complaining about baggage fees until they start bringing the cost of the non-Southwest flight up significantly.
How are international carriers dealing with baggage? Are they increasing their fees as well?
Do like I do.. Carry an over-sized Carry-On Bag, stuffed to the gills.. If they cant fit it in the overhead, they will tag it and put it in the cargo hold for free..
Added bonus, its with you on the flight and you get it at the gate at the end of the flight..
Charging on the second for international flights, that's a first, isn't it ?
@valkyrievf2x: When the theft and loss become bad enough I'll be watching for the airlines to offer some kind of extra 'insurance'. Baggage of passengers who choose to pay the protection money will be handled separately and tend to arrive unscathed.
At what point is it cheaper to send it FedEx or UPS?
@thebluepill: I tried that once, but I felt like 'that guy', the one who is holding up the entire line trying to get his obviously too-big bag in the overhead space, and who then has to drag it all the way back down the aisle to the front to get it gate-checked when it won't fit. Not saying that that's what you're like, but that's what I felt like.
@Vandelay Import Export: We need to start more replacements like southwest and jet blue. With more companies like that the big companies will be forced to compensate.
@kepler11: When I say that I will fly Jet Blue or south west, it does mean a lost customer for US Airlines. I used to take US Airlines from Rochester NY to Boston, MA because they have the only nonstop. Now I will go Jet Blue because it is worth the layover and extra 15 minutes for total flight time.
@nybiker: Sortof. You have to have a firearm (or flare gun) in a locked case (non-tsa lock). Now, you can place that inside your larger bag, but your outside bag MUST have the usual tsa locks...so it is really not any more secure.
@farcedude: Just ask at the desk for a gate check tag and they can give it to you beforehand. So many people bring oversize bags (or there are too many for the cabin) that they always allow you to gate check it BEFORE you get on the plane.
@HiPwr: fedex and UPS are both slower than carrying it with you.
it might be cheaper on the 3rd bag, but remember that each bag has its own maximum weight limit (50 lbs, iirc)
if you send a 50 lb bag from CLT to TPA, via second-day air saturday delivery, it would cost $95. 2nd day air (for monday deliv.) is $79.77. UPS Ground (also end-of-day monday) is $26.77
it really depends on how important the stuff you have with you is, how long a trip you'll be on, how far the trip is... whether or not the hotel you want to stay at will accept a package on your behalf if you aren't there... or if your friend/relative will keep a 50-lb box for a day before you get there
There's no such thing as "that guy" when significant fees are involved. If someone complained or even sneered at me, I'd ask them if they'd like to pay my baggage fees. You don't? You mean you're just sore I figured out how to game the system? Oh.
@Psychicsword: "Now I will go Jet Blue because it is worth the layover and extra 15 minutes for total flight time. "
Seriously? It's a little over an hour to fly directly from Rochester to Boston. Jetblue's nondirect flights take 4 hours.
So, saving the $35 baggage fee is worth 3 hours of your time?
@dohtem: To my knowledge, at least for European airlines, they're "bad socialists" where the airline is at least partly subsidized by the government, so they provide such things as meals for 1 hour flights, free bags, toys for kids, etc.
I'm just glad that at least when my family travels to France to visit family this Christmas, we get a bag for each kid. So we get 4 bags for all of us, even though our toddler doesn't really need her own bag. We'll be able to bring 4 moderately filled suitcases (or maybe 3 suitcases with an extra bag-type case packed inside another suitcase) that will leave enough room to bring back presents without having to use
US Air can go to hell
@Trance1861: $35 is more than some people earn in 3 hours, so I would say it's worth a crappy layover.
@kepler11: But the difference is that on int'l routes you have international airlines with better service than US-based airlines competing. Can't fly Southwest to Tokyo but you can take JAL. Better-looking and nicer flight attendants, not to mention airplane food that's actually palatable. Virgin Atlantic for trips to London (and if the legacies, or rather, their lobbyists, were out of the picture they'd have full integration with Virgin America too). Same thing. Didn't I even show that in the case of JAL they even turn up cheaper and better for domestic trips of comparable distance? I'd be 100% happy if AA went bankrupt and JAL (heck, any European/Asian airline, I'm that tired of crap service) picked up the remains, stupid protectionist US airline ownership regulations notwithstanding.
@baquwards: When our children were college age we made all three the same deal. We would pay for any school they could get into provided we could drive there in one day. I defined "day" as 16 hours behind the wheel. Even then I wasn't having anything to do with the airlines that I didn't have to, and I was flying then at least once a week domestically and once a month internationally. All three decided to go to schools in the Mid-West but now live on the East Coast.
Am I the only one not edified by the chart?
What about transpacific flights, or do they only go east of the US?
Jeebus, those bag fees are really getting up there.
Once again it shows why I love the hell out of Southwest.