United Airlines Joins JetBlue, Others in Raising Bag Fees
by Daniel McCarthy
The carrier will start charging $30 for the first checked bag. Photo: United
United Airlines is matching last week’s hike in bag fees by JetBlue. The carrier will now start charging $30 for the first checked bag (up from $25), $40 for the second (up from $35), and $150 for the third (up from $100). The fee for United flights to and from Canada for a second bag will now be $50.
The airline made the change last week, explaining to Bloomberg that it was done in order to help the carrier “make investments that make travel on United better,” and that “most of [the fees] have not been changed for the past eight years.”
United’s costs now match JetBlue’s, which became the first major airline to charge $30 for a traveler’s first checked bag. JetBlue was also followed by Canadian carriers Air Canada and WestJet last week, both of which are raising the fee for the first checked bag to CAD $30 (from CAD $25) and the price of the second to CAD $50 (up from CAD $30).
It is not clear whether or not the other major American carriers — Delta, American Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, and Alaskan Airlines — will follow suit, but the industry is continuing to look for more ways to increase revenue to offset rising fuel prices.
