Airlines collected somewhere north of $7 billion in baggage fees in the past year. I find that number both staggering and clarifying, because it represents an enormous transfer of money from travelers to airlines for a service that, with a modest amount of planning, most travelers don’t actually need. Not all of it is avoidable. Most of it is.
Know What You’re Actually Being Charged
The baggage fee landscape splits into three categories, and what you can carry for free differs significantly between them.
Legacy carriers (Delta, United, American) typically include one personal item and one carry-on bag at no charge, with checked bag fees starting around $35 for the first bag on domestic routes and $45 for the second. International flights often include one checked bag in the base fare, though this varies by route and fare class. The fees add up quickly: two travelers checking one bag each on a round trip is $140 in bag fees before the trip begins.
Southwest is the significant exception among major US carriers: two checked bags fly free on every ticket. If you need to check bags and your route works on Southwest, the math often favors it over a cheaper base fare on a competitor that charges for bags. Do the total cost comparison before booking.
Budget carriers (Spirit, Frontier, Allegiant, Ryanair in Europe) charge for everything. Carry-on bags above a small personal item cost extra. A Spirit fare that looks $40 cheaper can end up costing more than a legacy carrier once bag fees are included. Always calculate the total cost with bags before deciding the budget carrier is the better deal.
The Carry-On-Only Strategy
Fitting a week’s worth of clothing into a carry-on and a personal item is not a packing trick. It’s a learnable skill — we’ve covered the full approach to packing for air travel in a dedicated guide — and it pays $70 to $140 per round trip in avoided fees. The basics: roll clothing rather than fold it, use packing cubes to compress and organize, wear the bulkiest items on travel day, and accept that you’ll do laundry or rewear things rather than having a fresh outfit every single day.
The standard carry-on size across most major carriers is 22 x 14 x 9 inches. The personal item, which goes under the seat in front of you, is typically 18 x 14 x 8 inches or smaller. A bag confirmed to fit these dimensions before you leave home avoids the gate-check situation, where overhead space fills and the airline checks your carry-on at the door anyway. It’s free when that happens, but it’s also stressful and means waiting at baggage claim.
TSA’s 3-1-1 rule for liquids (containers of 3.4 ounces or less, all fitting in a single quart-size clear bag) is the main constraint for toiletries in carry-on bags. Solid toiletries, including shampoo bars and solid deodorant, bypass it entirely and have improved to the point where they’re genuinely good substitutes. Refillable travel-size containers handle everything else. A checked bag because of a full-size shampoo bottle is a choice, not a necessity.
Credit Cards That Cover the Fee
Several travel credit cards include a checked bag waiver as a cardholder benefit. The Delta SkyMiles Gold American Express Card waives the first checked bag for the cardholder and up to eight companions on the same reservation, on Delta flights. The United Explorer Card does the same on United. The Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select Card covers the first checked bag on American flights.
The annual fees on these cards run $95 to $99. A single round trip for two people checking one bag each saves $140 in bag fees, well above the annual fee. If you fly one carrier regularly and were going to check bags anyway, the co-branded card pays for itself quickly.
Airline Status: Even the First Tier Helps
Basic status on most airlines, typically achieved with 25,000 miles or a qualifying number of flight segments per year, waives checked bag fees for the member and often for companions on the same booking. For travelers who concentrate their flying on one carrier, basic status is frequently worth pursuing for the bag waiver alone, before considering upgrade priority or boarding benefits.
When Checking a Bag Is Actually the Right Call
There are trips where checking a bag makes sense: ski or surf trips with equipment that won’t fit overhead, trips of two weeks or more where laundry logistics genuinely don’t work out, travel with young children whose combined gear volume exceeds carry-on limits. In those cases the goal shifts from eliminating the fee to minimizing it. Paying online when you check in saves $5 to $10 at most carriers compared to paying at the counter. Paying in advance during booking is cheaper still at every airline that offers it.
The travelers paying the most in bag fees are the ones who haven’t thought about it before arriving at the airport. That’s what $7 billion in annual baggage revenue is mostly built on: the path of least resistance. The resistance takes about 20 minutes of packing differently.
For the DOT rules that govern airline baggage liability and fees, see the DOT's passenger baggage rules.
