Get ready to pay even more the next time you fly with checked baggage.
Just before Labor Day, JetBlue and United Airlines raised the bag fee for most travelers to $30 from $25. Delta Air Lines followed suit on Wednesday, and American Airlines said on Thursday that it, too, was raising its bag charges.
Airlines continue to see the much-maligned bag fees as a way to protect their bottom lines from rising fuel and labor costs.
“What the airlines are facing right now is that their costs are rising at about twice the rate of revenue,” said Samuel Engel, the senior vice president of aviation at the consulting group ICF. As a result, he said, airlines are looking for ways to increase revenues that entice their competitors to follow their lead.
“The baggage fee is an easy target, and the nice thing about the baggage fee is it’s a way to isolate that increase onto your least loyal customer,” Engel said. “Airlines have carved out exceptions to baggage fees for their elite frequent flyers, so the pool of people who represent the airlines’ most valuable revenue will not see this increase.”