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United Reaches Higher and Higher With Extra $5 Baggage Fee

It hasn't even been a week yet since we sifted through the rubble of information on United's luggage policy in order to compile our guide to their checked baggage fees, and already it's changed.

While we've updated the guide to reflect United's new policy to charge an extra $5 for bags checked at the airport, versus free online bag check-in, this switch is just another demonstration of how confusing the baggage fee business can be. The new fee went into effect yesterday, but is not applicable to anyone who booked a ticket before May 14.

You might be surprised to hear that not all air travelers read travel blogs or the little news blips on the sidebar of the travel section in their newspaper, and so we feel worst for them—they who will exclaim "what?!" at the ticket counter upon being told of the new $20 total fee for the first bag and $30 for the second.

Will we ever see an end to the baggage fee bingo, which is starting to match the frequency of postage rate hikes? We're going to have to reply with an emphatic no, especially after reading the news on Today in the Sky that airlines made $1.1 billion in these extra fees last year. All of that extra cash they didn't have in the years before, and yet they're still rationing peanuts.

Related Stories:
· United Matches US Airways' Baggage Fee Hike [SmarterTravel]
· Airlines made $1.1 billion in baggage fees last year [Today in the Sky]
· Baggage Fee Lowdown: United Airlines [Jaunted]
· Baggage Fees Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: flissphil]