Alaska Airways up to date its checked baggage payment web page over the weekend, elevating costs for checked baggage to $35 for the primary checked bag (up $5) beginning Jan. 2, 2024.
Alaska’s transfer might have knock-on results, if historical past is an indicator. It has been just a few years since we noticed a spherical of airline checked-bag payment will increase, although these items do generally tend to occur in clusters. The truth is, in 2018, we noticed three airways elevate checked bag charges inside simply days of each other.
Till Jan. 2, the primary checked bag on Alaska is $30 and the second is $35. After that, Alaska will cost $35 for the primary bag and $40 for the second bag. That matches the pricing at JetBlue, which is already charging $35 for the primary bag. Nonetheless, many of the largest U.S. airways are nonetheless at $30 for the primary checked bag.
The excellent news is that lots of Alaska’s greatest prospects will nonetheless get free checked baggage, together with these flying in first-class, those that maintain the Alaska Airways Visa® bank card or Alaska Airways Visa® Enterprise card and people with MVP, MVP Gold or MVP Gold 75K or 100K.
This transformation comes just some days after Alaska made huge adjustments to elite standing for subsequent yr, together with making all standing based mostly on Elite Qualifying Miles (EQMs) and providing you with extra incentives in direction of elite standing via bank card spend.
Associated: Alaska Airways bank cards get extra perks, new restrictions — and the next annual payment
Whereas this alteration may not look like an enormous deal at face worth, this alteration might probably set a precedent for different airways to lift checked baggage charges.
“I might not be shocked to see different carriers elevate their baggage charges in due time,” mentioned Tim Jue, a San Francisco-based aviation and journey reporter. Jue continued, “The airline trade likes to behave in unison, and if there’s a possibility to extend income someplace, it is a sure-fire guess airways will capitalize on it. All it takes is one service to take that leap of religion and everybody else often piles on instantly afterwards.”
“Airways often, although not at all times, match one another when there’s cash to be made,” mentioned Brian Sumers, an trade knowledgeable who authors the Airline Observer e-newsletter. He continued, “Bag charges are an attention-grabbing phenomenon. A lot is fabricated from the almost $7 billion U.S. carriers comprised of them final yr. However actually, that is a pittance in comparison with what main carriers make from bank card income.”
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Southwest famously does not cost for the primary two checked baggage. United Airways already expenses $35 a bag, however you may get that right down to $30 by paying for bags prematurely.
Associated: The right way to keep away from checked baggage charges on main home airways
“The price of doing enterprise for many airways goes up, and we’ll begin seeing carriers look to extract more cash out of their prospects,” mentioned Jue. “I feel baggage charges are simply the beginning of that effort, and I might anticipate different carriers to quietly elevate their checked bag charges within the coming days or even weeks.”
Sumers, nonetheless, mentioned it might be easier than that. “In elevating their baggage charges, airways could also be attempting to seize money from customers within the type of charges. However simply as probably, they’re attempting to coax some vacationers into getting a brand new bank card, which — you guessed it — comes with “free” checked baggage. As bag charges climb up, a bank card turns into a extra engaging deal.”
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