Heads Up Minnesota! Bagin’ It Now Costs More

If you travel a lot, whether it’s for business or personal reasons, this isn’t good news. You’ll likely not be shocked by this, but another major airline is raising their bag fees. 

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It wasn’t that long ago that American and United Airlines raised their fees for bags on flights, well now Delta is following suite. 

Delta announced this week they were raising the previous first bag fee by 17% which totals five extra dollars. Getting down to brass tax, it means the cost for the first bag for domestic flights on Delta is now $35, and for your second bag, it will now cost you $45. 

You may be saying to yourself, “well, I’ll just fly one of the smaller airlines”. Sadly, it appears they are the ones who started all of this.  

The Associated Press reported this week that the increased bag fees started with Alaska Airlines and JetBlue Airways who were the first ones to raise fees recently.  

When I was a kid, we would call people “copycats” who did exactly what someone else did, but apparently, they the airline industry calls this “herd instinct” according to the article from The Associated Press. I prefer “copycat”, I almost feel using the fancy title is just another reason these fees will be higher.  

The report says that if you pay for the higher priced tickets, you won’t have as many bags' fees. For instance, if you have a preferred status with Delta, you’ll be able to check your first bag for free and if you fly first class, you can check two bags for free.  

I guess it comes down to whether the extra ticket costs make more financial sense than playing the bag fees.