# American Airlines to charge for Luggage!



## Andy (Aug 25, 2002)

Passengers will be charged $15 for their first piece of luggage. American Airline, blaming high fuel costs, also plans other fee hikes, domestic flight cutbacks and layoffs.

https://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-american22-2008may22,0,5668445.story


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## Rossini (Oct 7, 2007)

Welcome to the world of Ryanair :icon_smile:

With fuel surcharges, check-in fees, baggage costs, insurances, airport taxes and so on, the total cost of flying can end up being twice the cost of the flight itself. 

And that's before they try to sell you scratch cards!

Ancillary revenue may be 15% of the total, but it represents 90% of the profit. It's the way of the future, it seems.


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## nsoltz (Mar 27, 2005)

The answer is to fly lots of miles on AA because all Elite status flyers are exempt.


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## trentblase (May 14, 2008)

nsoltz said:


> The answer is to fly lots of miles on AA because all Elite status flyers are exempt.


The answer is to fly another airline. (I hate to use the phrase "vote with your wallet", but there you have it). I wonder if they expect a significant percentage of passengers to pay the extra fee, in which case it is nothing more than a stealthy rate hike, or if they are expecting many passengers to go without extra baggage. In that case, do they expect to gain significant revenue from the now-available cargo space (UPS/USPS package delivery, etc.) or if they will be flying with an empty cargo hold and just save money on fuel. The last possibility is that the air travel industry is so competitive, they figure they can advertise $15 cheaper flights on Orbitz and gain more customers for the same total price.


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## 16128 (Feb 8, 2005)

I am a Delta club person, but I'm flying AA next month and will be checking a bag (and paying.

I guess I'm not too concerned about this. We're already paying a bunch of silly fees and taxes on tickets, so what's $15?

Can't get too worked up about it.


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