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Baggage Fees Don't Pay For Airlines Who Bleed Money Anyway

First it was checked baggage fees, and then it was peak holiday travel fees, and now it's airlines making no money from such fees. Even though carriers took in a total of over 1 billion dollars in 2008 for baggage fees, it's not helping things out much as the airlines who lost the most money last quarter were those with most fees.

Topping the list of the losers is United with a 21% drop. They changed their checked bag fee policies a few times last year, finally ending with $15 for your first checked bag and $25 for your second. Other losers include Continental and Delta and American, who each dropped between 18.8 and 15% of revenue and have the same baggage fee structure as United. Reasons for the drop in revenue run the gamut of the usual airline excuses, but our guess is that higher fees are driving travelers to book away from these airlines and onto ones with fewer or lower fees. For instance, flying Jetblue versus United to United's home base of Chicago saves you a first checked bag fee, not to mention some dough with the original ticket price.

And here there airlines all thought baggage fees were so great that they'd be able to get away with raising them every few months.

Related Stories:
· Airlines that charge fees lost more money than airlines that didn't [BoingBoing]
· Airlines Rake In Over A Billion Dollars In Baggage Fees [Jaunted]
· Airline Fees coverage [Jaunted]

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