Less than 24 hours after Delta announced an increased fee for their checked bags, American Airlines has announced an increased baggage fee of their own. This makes them the last mainline US carrier to increase fees for checked bags after JetBlue, United, American & Delta.
American has now increased the cost of their checked baggage fees. Checking a bag on a domestic American flight will now cost $30 for the first bag and $40 for the second checked bag. This is up from $25 and $35 respectively.
Thrifty Tip #1: You can find more information on American's checked baggage policies here.
Our Analysis
While a $5 increase in checked luggage fees isn't the end of the world, it represents another reason why it is generally a good idea to carry a co-branded credit card of an airline you often fly. With the exception of American Airlines AAdvantage MileUp Card, all of the American co-branded credit cards offer a free checked bag as a benefit of membership.
With the annual fee being $99 on both The Citi / AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite Mastercard and the Barclays Aviator card, you would only have to check a bag on two round-trip itineraries to get your money's worth out of the annual fee.
Bottom Line
Avoiding checked luggage fees are one of the many reasons the Thrifty Traveler team typically chooses to carry on over checking bags. We predicted it wouldn't be long for American to make this same announcement after Delta rolled their new fees out yesterday. With the major US airlines having shareholders to answer to, increases fees for things like checked bags are an easy way to improve revenue numbers.
