As Airline Luggage Fees Take Flight, Do You Take Issue? [Flightmares]

ACROSS AMERICA — If you’re someone who wants to be prepared for anything and overpack for vacations, be prepared to pay more to check your bags at the airport.

For years, the industry standard for checked bags was $30. Five of the six major U.S. airlines have raised their checked luggage fees since Alaska Airlines started the trend in January with an increase to $35 for the first checked bag and $45 for another on each leg of a trip.

American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Hawaiian Airlines and United Airlines followed suit with similar fee hikes, with JetBlue on the high end with charges of $50-$60 a second checked bag. The holdout is Southwest Airlines, whose policy for two free checked bags hasn’t changed.

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What do you think about this? We’re asking for Flightmares, an exclusive Patch reader-sourced column on flight etiquette and other issues associated with air travel. So what’s in all of this for you, the passenger? If you pay more to check bags, should you get something in return?

Please fill out our quick survey below — but first a bit about why this is happening.

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Airlines say the fee hikes are needed to return to pre-pandemic profitability or maintain current growth as labor, fuel and other costs increase. For example, JetBlue said in a statement defending its industry-high baggage fee hikes that “it’s one step we are taking to return our company back to profitability and cover the increased costs of transporting bags.”

Alaska Airlines said that to “navigate rising operating costs — including high fuel prices — we occasionally need to adjust our fee schedule.”

Or Is It A Tax Dodge?

A quirk in tax law may also be a factor, Boston University associate professor of markets, public policy and law Jay L. Zagorsky explained in a post for The Conversation.

Airlines are required to pay a 7.5 percent transportation tax on the ticket price and various fees associated with domestic flights. However, U.S. Code of Federal Regulations specifically excludes baggage from the 7.5 percent transportation tax as long as “the charge is separable from the payment for the transportation of a person and is shown in the exact amount.”

Since 2002, airlines have collected about $70 billion in baggage fees, Zagorsky said. At 7.5 percent, the tax savings for the airlines amount to more than $5 billion.

The tax isn’t applied to international flights, where fixed international departure and arrival taxes apply. Most airlines don’t charge baggage fees on flights to Europe and Asia, Zagorsky said.

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