We’re shining a spotlight on baggage (both travel and emotional …) this week as airlines raised bag fees almost in unison. So the guys talk through what happened, why, and - most importantly - what you can do to avoid paying those higher fees altogether. Plus, we dig into some Delta One news, break down a recent business class mistake fare, and sift through some (ridiculous) United/American merger chatter.
We’re shining a spotlight on baggage (both travel and emotional …) this week as airlines raised bag fees almost in unison. So the guys talk through what happened, why, and - most importantly - what you can do to avoid paying those higher fees altogether. Plus, we dig into some Delta One news, break down a recent business class mistake fare, and sift through some (ridiculous) United/American merger chatter.
Thanks to Surfshark for sponsoring this week’s episode! Go to https://surfshark.com/thrifty4 or use code THRIFTY4 at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN!
00:00 - “Pitiful & Pathetic:” Feedback on the travel mistakes episode
04:05 - Nate, Mo, & Koko introduce the show from New Zealand!
04:50 - $410 business class fares to Europe: A mistake fare breakdown
12:20 - Translating Delta CEO’s statements about rising airfare
17:30 - New Delta One Suites & a new Delta One Lounge at MSP
22:55 - United’s (gross) new basic business class tickets
25:20 - Something Stupid: United & American merger murmurs
29:08 - Baggage fees are up … but why?
34:35 - How to avoid baggage fees
44:40- Listener Question: Would you fly east to Asia?
47:40 - On the spot: What is Kyle’s favorite piece of baggage?
Produced and edited by Sylvia Thomas
Video editing by Kyle Thomas
Show music: “All That” by Benjamin Tissot
Yo, welcome to the show. I'm Gunner, that's Kyle. Today we're talking about the airlines raising baggage fees. We're gonna talk about what's going on there, and most importantly, all the ways to avoid having to pay for check bags when traveling. Uh, plus we're gonna hit some news. We're gonna talk about Delta one, a bananas mistake fair from last week, and of course, something stupid.
Uh, but to start out, Kyle, um, last week's episode about the worst travel mistakes we've made was. Massively embarrassing for me. Uh, I joked at the beginning that everyone would surely lose their respect for me. And that's clear. That's exactly what happened.
So is this the something stupid that we're covering in the episode?
No, no, no. This is a fresh, something stupid. I have, I have something stupid for everybody every week now. Um, so Kyle, today's find something out is just gonna be your reactions to some feedback we got on that episode. Are you ready?
I'm ready.
Okay. Someone named Robin left us a review on Apple Podcast saying.
This episode of Biggest Travel Mistakes has me laughing and also realizing I could never travel with Gunner. He has me stressed out and we aren't even traveling together.
Is Megan's middle name Robin?
No. No, no, no. Okay. My, my wife likes to travel with me. I think. Um, we also had, Tyler tweeted us. Tyler said, Gunner's out here getting his name wrong, his birthday wrong, and paying for bags.
Meanwhile, Kyle's like. I saw too many places and had too much fun on that trip. I really regret it. Poor Gunner.
I, I realized after reading some of these reviews that in trying to provide context for my mistakes, it just came across as a pure humble brag. So that one's on me for that. Like made you look extra bad, I think.
Okay. And then we have Skyler who. Man, this one is hard to read. Uh, Skyler says that last episode was all caps hilarious. Poor gunner. His mistakes were also pitiful and pathetic, putting the wrong name on the reservation, standing in line for two and a half hours with Sun Country 'cause he put the wrong birthday on the booking because consistently nearly peeing his pants on the plane 'cause he drank too much at the lounge.
Meanwhile, nearly all of Kyle's mistakes essentially start with. This one time when my wife and I took this incredible three week luxury vacation to insert remote, luxurious location, and it's even funnier dynamic knowing that Gunner works for Kyle. Kyle, poor guy is just fully putting himself out there.
Meanwhile, Kyle's biggest travel mistake is seemingly overpaying for delicious chili crab in Singapore, LOL.
Yeah. Yeah. Wasn't, wasn't your finest moments in that episode last week, I'll be honest.
And then of course, finally what, what happened after this episode was my friends and family listened, and then they all called me being like, you forgot about the time when, dot, dot, dot.
And so,
so what, what's the biggest one you forgot about?
Um. I don't, I basically, here's what I wanna do. I wanna save these for a future episode because we're getting a lot of submissions from the listeners of their own travel mistakes. I'll give you one though. I'll give you one though. My wife reminded me that when we went on our honeymoon, I, uh, we basically failed to bring enough cash to tip people.
And when we landed in the Messai Mara in the middle of nowhere in Kenya, uh, we realized that we started having to ration tips. At one point, I went up to someone and said, is there an ATM around here? And they were like. No, you just won 45 minutes away. If you wanna spend half of your game drive driving to an ATM in the nearest town, you can do that.
So that was a good one. My, my, my wife reminded me that we, we did not bring, we did bring just enough tipping money, but to the point where we were laying the money out on the bed, being like, okay, this is. For the Butler. This is for the tour guide. This is for the shuttle drive. Like we're, we were really stressing it.
So she, she reminded me that, uh, I should probably have included that one, but I had several other friends and family mention other moments in which I failed on travel.
Well, I, I have one I forgot as well, so we'll save that for a future show.
Okay. If you have a good travel mistake, a goof, an error, a catastrophe, send it to podcast@thitraveler.com.
We might include it. In an upcoming episode, we're already getting lots of really, really fun submissions. Okay. Today on the show, we are sifting through our baggage and going over the news, all that and more.
Hi, this is Nate Mo and Coco, and we're at the top of the Roo Alpine Crossing in New Zealand.
Welcome back to the Thrifty Traveler Podcast.
All right. That was Nate Mo and Coco from the toga, Rero Alpine Crossing in New Zealand. That's up on the north island in the high country. And, uh, from their video, it looks like they recorded it from the moon. Super, super cool. Thank you for sharing. Uh, if, have you been there?
I have not.
Oh, okay. That's usually you have very
jealous.
Usually you have, uh, if you want your video featured on the show, upload it to thrifty traveler.com/voicemail. Let's get into something hot and something cold. I'll look at the good and the bad news out there for travelers and there's a lot. So we're gonna do two rounds of hot and cold today, and we'll start with the hottest thing of 'em all.
Kyle. A mistake fair. Last week we had one of those alarm Bells days at Thrifty Travelers headquarters. I love it when we have mistake fairs in unicorn alerts. It's so much fun, it reminds me of, of being in the newsroom again. Uh. So our Thrifty Traveler premium team dug into this mistake, fair. And I'll give you the rundown of kind of the gist of it.
It was $410 one-way business class fairs, flying Turkish airlines from Vancouver to several cities in Italy and London. Gatwick, I believe, was the other city on there.
And Sara Yvo, Bosnia, and Herzegovina.
Of course, don't forget about Sarajevo. Um. We heard from close to a hundred people who booked this killer deal before it died.
And then 48 hours later, Turkish began canceling everything, citing quote, clearly erroneous, fair levels. Um, everyone was refunded their money. Uh, nobody was refunded their good vibes from the booking though, which is the most devastating part about doing this. Um. Ka, you are a mistake. Fair expert. Can you shed light on what happened here?
How does a fair like this even happen? How does this come to exist?
You know, mistake fairs are funny because increasingly, A, they're getting more rare, and B, it is generally speaking, getting harder to tell what is a, an actual mistake, fair? When did the airline actually goof? Versus what's just a really good deal, A deal that seems incredibly good, but maybe they did it on purpose and it's been kind of a coin flip.
Recently in the mistake fairs we found after the, let's say, three. Three or four last years. This one was so obviously a mistake. Fair. So what we do, anytime we see one of these seemingly too good to be true might be a mistake. Fair deals, is we plug it into some tools and try to figure out the composition of the fair.
Because you know, people just see $410 for a business class one-way flight to Europe. That's incredible. Going into that $410 sum, there are a lot of different components. There are taxes, fees, surcharges, and then the actual fair itself. And so we always look at this when we find what we suspect might be a a mistake.
Fair. Because if something is missing, that's the tell that yes, this is in fact a mistake. We need to label this a mistake. Fair? So people know about the risks. So when we did this, what we found is comparing, you know, a one-way flight from Vancouver to Sierra Yvo for $410, versus a one-way flight from Vancouver to say Lisbon, which was pricing out at closer to $4,000.
What happened was Turkish Airlines forgot to include the actual $3,600 fare. So it all, they were ta, all they were charging people were the taxes, fees, and surcharges, which resulted in a, you know, selling for a 10th of the normal price. So this was a, I would say a rare instance over the last few years where it was just so obviously a clear cut and dry mistake.
Sometimes we, we see these incredibly low fares and we're not totally sure if it's a mistake or not. Sometimes it's just a really good fair. Sometimes the airlines are under just a ton of competitive pressure. Uh, but in this case, they just forgot to charge the fair, uh, which is of course making it a mistake.
Fair. Um. So we talked about how Turkish didn't honor these, they canceled these. Um, how often does that happen versus how often are they honored?
You know what, I, I did some research based on the, the last 20 or so mistake fairs that we've sent dating back to 2020, and I was surprised. 18 of them have been honored.
Wow. Only two. There was this one, and then there was one a couple of years ago where it was actually a mistake, award fair, where Air France sold a series of tickets from Canada to Europe for as low as 1500 miles one way in business class that they ended up canceling for basically everyone except for travelers who have their highest level of status.
Hmm. That is it though. So you know, again, you get to how many of those 18 that were honored were actually mistakes. Certainly a significant subset of them. Others were intentional deals that were just incredible and people needed to hop on ASAP. But on the whole, airlines clearly make the decision. You know what?
We don't wanna, you know, anger our customers by canceling these tickets. It's not a great look. It's, I would say in this case, it's not a good look for, for Turkish Airlines in this case, but unfortunately for travelers, uh. Airlines have been given a lot of leeway by regulators to cancel tickets when they offer them, um, at, uh, you know, erroneously low levels as Turkish put it.
Fortunately for travelers, very few airlines seem to do that. So the track record on the whole is, is pretty good and pretty encouraging.
Yeah, that's awesome. Um. I believe you booked and flew a mistake. Fair. The Hong Kong Airlines mistake Fair from several years ago?
Yeah. Way back in, uh, 2018 Hong Kong Airlines, which now no longer flies nonstop to the United States.
Is there a correlation there? There might be. Uh, but, but back then they sold, uh, round trip business class tickets from the United States to China, Vietnam. Thailand and probably Hong Kong itself for as low as I think the lowest price was like $565 round trip for business class fairs. That should have cost about $5,600 round trip.
So what did you do to like protect yourself when you booked that fair? How long did you wait before you started booking other travel things? Like what, what was your kind of order of operations when you went about booking that one?
I mean, I follow the advice that, uh, we give everybody. In these mistake fair alerts when we send them, which is number one, book ASAP, because these tickets can and often do get pulled in not just a matter of hours, but sometimes a matter of minutes.
I think in the case of Hong Kong Airlines, it probably lasted less than two hours. The sh. Turkish Airlines fair from earlier this month lasted a few hours before it eventually got pulled or, or got all booked up. But either way, you just, you don't have time to waste to check with your spouse or your travel companion or request time off work.
You book it first. You ask those questions later because importantly after that, you just need to be really patient and wait to see if. The airline that offered that fair does what Turkish airline did in this case, which is they canceled it because if you, you know, book that flight and then all of a sudden you're like, all right, I gotta book my flight to Vancouver.
I gotta book my hotels in Sierra Yvo or in London, or Milan or wherever. And then the airline does eventually cancel. You may be left holding the bag at least as long as you're booking those things non-refundable. So either book refundable or wait. You know, typically the guidance that we give people is as long as two weeks to make sure that that fair sticks and isn't ultimately canceled.
I think in the instances where we have seen airlines cancel these fares, not just, you know, the two that I mentioned, but going back even further, typically when they do it. They cancel within the first, I would say, 72 hours at the most, which if airlines have to do this, and again, I really wish that they wouldn't because if you screw up by booking too high of a fair, do you, do you get an optout from the airlines?
You certainly do not. Airlines don't play that way. Um, but if, if that happens, um. Then you're left holding the bag, which nobody wants.
Awesome. Okay, well that was a really fun day at, uh, thrifty Traveler Headquarters. A Mistake Fair Day is always the best. I'm sorry this one wasn't honored, but make sure you're ready for the next one.
Okay, let's move on to something cold, Kyle. Uh, and it's quarterly earnings call. Last week, Delta gave a pretty dire outlook for flight pricing. Uh, but as always, they did it in a special language. Called Airline executive. Luckily, Kyle, you speak airline executive, I believe you minored in it at University of Minnesota, is that right?
Uh, yeah, I was an elective course.
Okay, good. So I'm gonna test it. Uh, I'm gonna read some statements from Delta CEO, ed Bastion, and you're going to translate them for the audience. Sound good? Yep. Okay, here is the first bastion statement. He said, quote, our goal is to recapture all of the fuel. Given the level at which we snapped it, it's going to take more than the current quarter.
We're going to continue to see a much higher percentage as we move into summer. Please translate that for us, Kyle.
Recapture the fuel. These people just can't help themselves. Right? So this is a phrase that airlines use. When they recapture something, what they're saying is, our costs are higher. We're going to make offset those costs by charging more.
Charging more by raising fares and by raising. Fees, which they've clearly done both and probably will continue to do both in the weeks and months ahead. And, um, you know, when he says they're going to continue to see a much higher percentage as we move into summer, I mean, that just means that even if.
Even if fuel prices drop overnight, which at this point seems outta the cards, but if that were to happen, they would continue charging those higher fares into the summer because they know that demand is high and they can continue to get more out of customers to offset the higher costs that they had earlier in the spring.
Okay, his next quote, quote, we do expect, hopefully that fuel settles down. Now it'll settle down at a higher level. So fuel recapture is going to be important no matter what we do. Lot of jargon here. What's up?
More jargon. Lovely. Uh, you know, this I think just says clearly that, you know, even if the straight of four moves opens tomorrow, which again does not seem likely that airlines are preparing for the likelihood that their fuel costs are going to continue to re remain higher, if not significantly higher than they were, you know, go going back to mid to late February before the war.
Iran began, all of which means that that higher fares are gonna remain in place because of that.
Okay, and last one, Kyle quote, the degree to which we can retain any of the pricing strength that we've talked about from industry rationalization, that will certainly help us boost our margins and into next year as well.
My eyes glazed over reading that. What does that mean?
Industry rationalization, it just rolls off the tongue, you know? Yeah. Okay. So there's, there's a lot to this one. Uh, the crux of it is, is that airlines don't just think about their costs when they're charging fares. What they really think about is what are people willing to pay?
And a lot of what airlines do in terms of adding new service, adding new seats, introducing new champagnes. But also, you know, slicing and dicing their fares with basic economy, but then also basic comfort. And soon basic business class Faires is trying to find the right price point to meet somebody at the willingness to pay level that they have without letting somebody who is willing to pay more, actually pay that lower price.
And so what, what Bastion is saying here is that. There's two things. Um, he talks about our pricing strength that we've talked about. They're saying we have in, in his mind, Delta believes that they have set themselves apart from the, the rest of the US airline industry so much that their customers are willing to pay more than a customer of say, American Airlines or Southwest.
And then, um, that. Uh, from industry rationalization will certainly help us boost our margins. Industry rationalization is just shorthand for other airlines are going to shrink or fail. And in doing that, if that does happen, which it probably will, I mean it's certain it will, we're going to see more mergers.
We're gonna talk about that later. We're going to see probably at least one major US airline fail at some point in the next couple of years, if not sooner. When that happens, there's less competition, there's less pressure on Delta to, you know, lower fares, which means that they can just continue to collect higher fares, you know, for not just weeks or months, but probably years.
Yep. Okay. So overall the decode is, fares are going up. We're Delta
and they're not gonna be the only ones that say this. I imagine every US airline, CEO is going to say some version of this, except for, you know, maybe Spirit and Frontier don't really have that luxury right now. This is the name of the game.
Um, you can begrudge 'em for it. I certainly do, but at the same time, I think it's important to realize that airline's entire mission is built around charging the highest fares as possible while still filling their planes. That just got a whole lot easier for Delta, and most of what Ed Bastion is saying here suggests that they believe that that's gonna continue to be the case, if not be even stronger in the weeks and months to come.
Okay. We have one more, something hot. We have one more, something cold, and then we have a something stupid, which is a segment I keep sliding in into episodes, hoping that it becomes a recurring thing. Um, the next something hot is we're sticking with Delta, uh, they announced Monday morning that the Delta one suites on its a three 51,000 will get a whole new design different from the current Delta ones on all of its other aircraft.
If you're watching us on YouTube, we'll show you a couple of images, but what were your first impressions of the seats, Kyle?
I, these are no doubt a big improvement for, for Delta for a couple of reasons. Um, you know, there are going to be a lot of these Delta one suites on their new flagship, a 3 51 thousands.
There are gonna be 53 business class seats. That's compared to, I think as much as 40. Is the max on their current fleet of a three fifties right now. So there's gonna be a lot of business class capacity flying Delta. Uh, they look, uh, not just a little bit, I would say a lot different than the current setup that you find at most Delta one, even Delta one Suites, um, you know, it's a lot darker.
The blues are a lot darker, the tones are a lot darker. There's not nearly as much white, which is. Probably a good thing if, if anybody has flown Delta one suites on either their a three fifties currently, or their a 3 3900 Neos, they scuff a lot because there's so much white. So just, you know, kicking the bottom of the door or dragging your luggage against it leaves a mark that's never coming out.
Um, the seats are reverse herringbone, so they're angled away from the aisles, which means you're a little bit more private, but it also gives you a little bit more space as well. Um, maybe the, the two biggest things that I would be excited about for this are, um, Delta says that they're using a blend of both memory foam cushioning, as well as pillow top ing on the seats themselves.
Which the one knock that I've given Delta one suites in the past is that the seats just get really, really hard if you're on a long haul flight. So hopefully this will fix it. And then every single suite has a 24 inch 4K screen, which is absolutely massive with Bluetooth connectivity throughout the plane, not just in Delta one suites, but every seat on the plane, um, all the way back to economy is gonna have Bluetooth, which is a great, great ad.
Yeah, uh, these look really exciting. Um. I, you know, I think most importantly in the announcement though, Kyle, was that the a 3 32 hundreds and three hundreds, those really old Delta one products, um, I would call them ancient. In fact, in terms of business class in the sky, they're gonna get new suites as well.
The timeline for installing those is unclear, but Delta said those are getting a refresh. Uh, they are going to let the 7 67 die.
And they're gonna fly those turds until they fall apart.
Yeah,
yeah.
No, this is,
this is long, long overdue. The business class seats on those older, A three thirties is just really, really outdated.
They, those seats are more than a decade old now, and they're gonna get a very similar, not quite identical, but it's gonna look very similar to what they inve unveiled for the A three 51,000 on these retrofits. Timing a little bit up in the air. They haven't been clear about exactly when. That project is going to end.
Um, but Delta has said that by 2030, 90% of their business class cabins will have Delta one suites. So that's, that's a good thing. Again, this is long overdue. I think Delta has really gotten away with using its brand as the premium airline in the United States while getting away with some. Honest to God.
Relics in business class on these A three thirties, especially on those Boeing 7 67, 3 hundreds. Uh, this is a good move. Um, it's about time.
Yeah. Awesome. Uh, and other Delta news really quickly, Kyle, it looks like Delta is finally moving on a Delta one lounge here in our backyard of Minneapolis. Your thoughts?
Uh, not a surprise. You know, Delta has made clear that. It is going to install and, and build Delta one lounges at all of its major hubs. I think to the average traveler, seeing them have Delta one lounges in JFK and Boston and LA and most recently Seattle, but not. Minneapolis or Atlanta or Detroit or Salt Lake City seems really puzzling.
But the reality is, is that Delta doesn't need to offer travelers here and who are truly hub captives, who don't have a choice, don't need to offer us a better lounge because it's not like we're gonna go and fly another airline. And many cases we don't really have that choice. So Delta. Could and unfortunately did decide to wait on some of these core hubs they call 'em, and kind of in the center of the country or more in the center of the country, and instead focused on, you know, hubs where they really do have to compete with the likes of United or American Airlines and other foreign carriers.
So, um, this is still gonna take probably at least another year, if not two, before this happens. But, um, Delta is planning. Moving forward with plans for a 20,000 square foot lounge, Delta one, um, for Minneapolis Flyers flying business class long haul.
Yeah, on the GE concourse, uh, it looks like it'll be next to or close to that.
Nice new, uh. G Concourse Delta Sky Club. What are the chances they ever let me into the Delta one lounge, MSP?
Never.
Not even with the Delta one ticket.
You can wave. Yeah, we heard what you said about us Gunner. You can't
come in. Not you, not you, sir. Um, something called Kyle, um, United Basic Business class, uh, United rolled out a three tier fair structure across all of its cabins, including a stripped down basic.
Polaris Business Class Fair. The new lowest fair called Polaris Base will have no Polaris Lounge access. Uh, it subs in United Club Access instead, and also takes out benefits like a second check bag and the ability to make changes or cancel for a voucher. Uh, in the announcement, United also said it'll dissect the premium economy cabin in the same way.
Let's do a reverse airline, CEO translation of these changes. Kyle. So, United Chief Commercial Officer Andrew No. Said the options quote, give customers more choice and that travelers can choose, quote, great value added perks or maximum flexibility. Uh, is Noela correct? Is this a win for customers? Kyle?
So, do you remember a few weeks ago when I said that?
Basically, anytime investors are happy about something airlines are doing, it's bad for consumers.
Yeah.
I'm gonna add a second point to that, which is anytime an airline says they're giving you more choice, it's also bad for consumers. That is, the track record on this is just so clear because the, the problem is, is that.
Especially now with business class airlines aren't doing this in order to offer a cheaper basic fare. What happens is that the basic fare takes the price of the standard standard business class fare, which then goes up in price. So you're paying the same. To get less. And what has already happened is we've seen, United has started to roll these out as we're talking now, specifically on nonstop flights down to South America, flying United, Polaris, and in every case they are charging $400 more for a standard business class fare compared to what they were charging before.
So this is, it's gonna take some time for this to roll out. Across the globe probably take through the end of the year, but there's not a win here for consumers. There may be some cases where business class truly gets cheaper by a couple of dollars by maybe a hundred, $200 or so, but paying $400 more round trip is not more choice.
It is a fair increase in disguise, and that is why airlines are doing this because demand for premium travel is sky high and they know they can do this.
This really stinks. I don't have anything else to add to that. Let's, uh, stick with United and move on to something stupid. Kyle uh, reports from CBS News, Bloomberg and Reuters this week said that United CEO Scott Kirby floated the idea of a possible merger between his airline and American Airlines.
Uh, he said. They said that, uh, he floated the idea to Trump administration officials. This is epically stupid media posturing that deserves zero attention. Uh, but it is a sexy idea and several news outlets are very into covering it as we're recording this on Tuesday morning. Um, first of all. American would never go for this.
This is dumb. Second, the government, even a Trump administration who is very open to mergers and quote big deals, uh, would never approve something like this. It's so anti-competitive. It would ruin the airfare landscape all over the country. And third, this is just a troll job. I. I don't know who leaked this, but I can tell you that Scott Kirby has his feet on his desk and is delighted to see all of this all over the news this morning.
It makes American look like little brother once again. Uh, I'm giving this a 0.0% chance of happening. Kyle, do you have any more room for optimism than I do?
Uh, I am optimistic that this will not happen ever, and it's a good thing. Um, I do give it maybe the, the. United floating. This maybe a little bit more strategic credence than you do beyond just trolling, which is absolutely probably a big, if not the biggest piece of this.
Scott Kirby United, CEO had been at American Airlines for a long time and then was more or less forced out. Then eventually moved over to United where he has spent the better part of the last decade needling his former employer. Every single chance he gets. That is a big piece of what is happening here.
I think another piece of it is that he United is. United likes to say that it is a premium airline and it is certainly getting there. It is certainly competing with Delta for that crown, and by some measures has exceeded Delta on that. That is a big story in US aviation right now. What United is probably best at.
Has less to do with the flying and the airplanes and more to do with knowing how to make a buzz by ordering supersonic planes, by partnering with starlink before starlink was as big of a name in aviation as it as it is today. I mean, a lot of moves that they've made over the last four or five years have been just really driven by press coverage, and this is another thing and another way to kind of.
Brag about how Big United has become. I think that this is a piece of it too. But then the final part is, is that I suspect that this is a way of softening the ground for a different merger. There's been talk for months now about JetBlue, which has reportedly kind of been sniffing out potential suitors and United has certainly on that list.
Scott Kirby United, CEO has said he's not interested publicly. I don't think anybody should believe that. Um, I think they are certainly interested. That's a possibility. But either way, I think by suggesting going after American Airlines by some measures, the biggest airline in the country says that, um, it makes anything else look much more reasonable and palatable in comparison.
It's like, uh, me pitching to my wife, it's like, Hey babe, uh, me and the boys are going to Indonesia for 30 days. And then I pitched that for a few weeks and she's like, absolutely not. And then I'm like, all right, I'm just gonna go skiing in Whitefish for four nights. Boom, skiing in Whitefish. That didn't actually happen.
I was gonna say your master plan is never gonna work again.
Okay. Uh, let's talk about rising baggage fees, what's going on there and how to fight back. But first we're gonna take a quick break. Okay. We're back. And it's time for the extra mile where we dig a little deeper on an important travel topic. And this week we're talking baggage.
Uh,
physical or emotional?
Either way. Your choice. I've got plenty of emotional after last
week. No, this is about to get. Dark.
Um, Kyle, as of this writing, JetBlue Delta, United, Southwest American and Alaska Airlines have all hiked their baggage fees by about $10 or more. Uh, that means you'll pay about $45 each way for the first bag, which used to be $35, and you'll pay about $55 for a second check bag.
In some cases, you'll pay $5 more than that if you wait. Until the airport to pay up to. And in the case of American Airlines, you'll pay $5 more than that if you book basic economy too. Ouch. Uh, carriers like Spirit, frontier and Allegion are also likely charging more too. They just use a different, more unpredictable system, uh, based on the route you're flying on the day you're flying.
So you can't really nail down exactly what their bag fees are. So, Kyle, let's start here. Why are bag fees going up?
For the same reason fares have been going up for the last 4, 6, 4 to six weeks because they can, because jet fuel prices have basically doubled over the course of the last six weeks since, uh, the start of the war in Iran and fuel is a huge cost for airlines.
Airlines, while most many of them are profitable, are nowhere near profitable enough to just swallow the cost of, you know, their fuel bills doubling. And so they have to find ways to pass that cost on to everyday consumers like you and I and everybody listening to this. And they have done that by raising fares clearly.
I think anecdotally everybody has felt that, I mean, you and I have talked about like looking at our Google Flight's price alert tracking history, and it is just a sea of red. Out there week after week. Things just keep inching up and up and up. But, um, that's not enough. Um, and in some ways, like we talked about before on a couple of weeks ago, fair increases aren't even the most effective way to recoup some of the cost of those higher fuel bills.
The, the most effective way is to charge higher fees. That's what they're doing.
Yeah. Um, what role do credit cards play in all this? We're gonna talk more about cards later.
It's huge. Um, this is, airlines accomplish a couple of goals by raising fees. First, they get more revenue every single time people check a bag or select a seat.
If we see airline seat assignment fees creep up, which I suspect we already have. Uh, but maybe more importantly, it. Makes their airline credit card programs where they make their real money much more alluring. Because when you get to say, save $90 on bags, on a round trip flight with our co-branded credit card, there's gonna be a lot more people who open and then use those credit cards on an ongoing basis.
And so it's, it, they win on both sides of that transaction. It's, it's huge for airlines.
Okay. So, um, when this conflict in the Middle East is over, all these bag prices are gonna come back down, right.
No, they certainly will not. Fares will start to come back down. Over time though, as Ed Bastion talked about, they may not come back down to where they were in mid to late February.
Bag fees will never. Decrease. They never have. They never will. And that is a big piece of why airlines do this when they do. I mean, the entire concept of unbundling bag fees, something that for decades was included as a piece of the fair that you bought dates back to 2008 when fuel levels spiked to a level about where they're at today.
And one airline after another decided, you know what? We can charge 15 bucks for a bag now. That's worth it, and it never went back down. We've seen airlines raise bag fees by five to $10 a handful of times over the last decade and a half, and they have never gone back down. Even when those fuel costs decrease over time, it's just not gonna happen.
This is less about airlines truly. Offsetting the costs of their higher fuel bills and more about airlines seizing an opportunity to raise fares using higher fuel bills as covered to do so. That is why we saw all six of the major US airlines raise bag fees in a matter of what, 10 days? That's like lightning speed.
So. I don't know, to, to me and maybe some others. It's like this 10 bucks, what's, what's really the damage here? What, like why is raising it $10 mean anything to these airlines
that that extra $10 or $15 that airlines charge per bag is going to result in probably close to a billion dollars in extra revenue for the major, the biggest US airlines, American Delta, Southwest, and United, it'll be in the neighborhood of a half a million to.
Close to a billion for some of them at least once. This kind of gets in full effect for a full calendar year in 2027. And like I said, these fees can be more effective for airlines because if an airline raises fares by 10 to 15 bucks, they still have to pay federal excise taxes of 7.5% or something like that on the fares that they charge.
For these ancillary fees, for bags, for seed assignments, other stuff like that. They don't have to pay taxes at all. So they get to keep every single dime of that money, which again, just makes it an even more effective way to cover these costs and pull in more revenue, which is why they do what they do.
Yeah. Okay. Let's, uh, pivot here and talk about. What tools travelers have at their disposal to beat baggage fees? How can you avoid paying these fees when you go to the airport and fly? And I'll start with a very easy pitch. Don't check bags. Carry on. If you can, uh, avoid it, pack better into a better carry on.
Um, and that way you just have to avoid that worst line at the airport, which is always the check bag line. And, uh, you get to avoid all of these fees too. Anything to add?
I would ask you, you have been both an evangelist of packing only in a carry on. Also traveling with an infant where that is just not always possible.
So how are you thinking about this differently for like people out there who are listening and just believe I need a to check a bag, which I know plenty of friends and family who absolutely do need to, that's not to say just check on a carry on. It's the easiest thing in the world. Everybody can do it.
But how do you think about that now?
Um, usually I, this is how I always think about check bags. Um, on the way to my destination, I'll do everything in my power to not check a bag. Um, if I'm traveling with the car seat or whatever. Uh, sometimes I will, especially if it's a, if it's a nonstop flight or just a domestic hop, you know, checking the bag.
I'm not that worried about it. But, um. Going to the destination. I almost never check a bag. And on the way home, unless it's gonna cost me a ton of money, I check everything. I, I don't care if my bag gets back to me when I get home. Preferably it doesn't, honestly, then I get to get in the uber empty handed.
Um, but I usually, uh, try and go carry on only on the way there and on the way back. You know, free for all, check it all. Um, but I, you know, honestly, like I've, I've looked into things like shipping bags, especially 'cause we have the car seat and if I don't wanna do that, I'll look into shipping bag, like, uh, ship skis and ship sticks.
They do this for golf clubs and skis. Um, you're paying a premium for it. It's not a good value, but it is certainly easier. Um, I've heard. People who just swear by this, who just hate dragging their skis through the airport and just say, I want it sitting in my hotel room when I get to wherever. Um, but it's, you're gonna pay, you know, probably three or four x what you would for a checked bag.
So I don't know what that's worth to you. Um, but yeah, I, I mean, it's changed my calculus a little bit, but, um, if I, if I have to go stand in that check bag line, I'll be there. I'll just try and. Fly it off peak times like I usually do anyway.
My Allie and I do similar to you where, I mean, and most of the time we just pack and carry on only for largely because A, it saves us a lot of time at the airport, both checking in as well as leaving.
Saves you the stress of having to worry about, will the airline lose my bags? I just made it to Hong Kong after a 15 hour flight and I have none of my things. What am I gonna do? But also, it gives us the freedom and the ability to have tighter connections to make your way across the globe and book a positioning flight, um, you know, from Minneapolis to Seattle and then Seattle to Hong Kong.
Things that you just can't do if you have to grab your bag, recheck it. Make your way to wherever you're going. And then a lot of times what we'll do is we will either pack into a, into one of our carry-ons or just buy a cheap piece of check luggage at our destination for extra stuff that we pick up all the souvenirs and extra clothes or whatever that we get throughout the course of our trip.
Or you know, if we wanna buy a nice bottle of wine or something, obviously can't bring that in a carry on. Having that kind of a hybrid approach, I think is, will at least save you on half of the trip, right?
Yeah. Have a duffle bag in your carry-on or something that you could always check on the way home.
Um, you mentioned, you know what my strategy is now that I have to check bags, and most of that strategy now revolves around co-branded credit cards. Uh, if you listen to last week's episode, you know that, uh, I'm not great at that yet. Um, sometimes I forget to pay the taxes and fees, uh, using this. Said credit card, and then I don't get my free bags benefit at all.
But when flying Delta, which we do a lot from MSP, um, my wife and I both carry a co-brand credit card, uh, which gives us one free check bag each. Um, and that's, you know, a. One of the best ways to beat these baggage fees. Of course, you're paying an annual fee, but these lowest level co-branded credit cards, whether it's the Sky Miles card, the city AA Advantage cards, the United Cards, even JetBlue, Alaska and Southwest, they're that lowest level card does get you one free checked bag.
Um, and those annual fees are, you know, between $99 and $150 for the most part, um, which makes, you know, two round trips. Worth it in a year.
And many of them don't charge that annual fee in your first year of the uh, with the card, which means you could see how many times did I check a bag this year? What would I have saved?
Would it have exceeded the cost of the annual fee that I would pay in year two? And then you can decide. Is it worth re-upping this card for next year? Am I going to continue flying United or Delta? And therefore it's worth having this card in order to save now $90 in check bag fees for a round trip domestic flight.
I think really importantly, the one that I really wanna call out here is that for both Delta and United and I believe some of the other, you know, smaller US carriers like Alaska and Southwest, those bags will get you free. Those cards will get you free bags no matter what flight you're on. Um, if it's a Delta flight to Denver or to London, you're gonna get a free check bag.
American only gives you domestic baggage for free using that co-branded credit card. Yep.
Um, okay. Another way to save check bags, Kyle is. Airline status. Um, now this, you may be thinking easier said than done. I'm not. We, we did the, these bros ain't loyal episode. Earning status is usually not worth it. Um, all levels of status typically include at least one free check bag.
Higher status levels sometimes include two free check bags. Um, but like we said. Earning status is really expensive. Um, tell me about status matching and how this could help here.
Yeah. So no matter what kind of status you have at, at any given moment, there are a handful of different airlines that will offer a status match, which will give you, you know, in some cases as long as a year in some cases.
This few as three months or so of free status with the idea that you're getting that in order not just to get three months of free status, but you're going to continue flying with that airline in order to earn a full year of status. It's kind of a challenge is what most airlines call it, and that's important for two reasons.
One is that say you have Delta Silver status and you find a way to match that status to United Silver. That could be great if you have a united flight coming up within the next, say, three months, whatever the terms of that status match is, because then you could use that to get free bags on your united flight.
But maybe more importantly, the way that this really starts to shine is that you can do these status matches and also get in some cases, um. Global Airline Alliance status, which basically takes the, those free bag benefits that you get with one airline and puts it on steroids so that you know if you match to Royal Jordanian, which offers huge status matches all the time.
Not often to us customers, though it does happen maybe once a year or so. If you get status with, uh, you know, you match your Delta Silver status to Royal Jordanian, then you can get one world status from that. Broil Jordanian status that you match to, man, I'm saying that airline name more than I ever have in my life and, and use that to get free bags on Cafe Pacific or Japan Airlines or any of the other different one World Airlines.
It's a massive opportunity if you have even that lowest level of airline status to begin with.
These status matches can be really valuable. I would urge you to do this well in advance of your trip. Sometimes these statuses status matches take a lot of time. I, I looked into it before for a trip that's coming up in two weeks and the fine print says, you know, we'll, we'll review this in four to eight weeks or something.
And so that's clearly not gonna be worth it then. But especially if you know you're gonna have some. Recurring flights with an airliner within a, an alliance, it's definitely worth looking at, especially if you have status. And if your status is about to expire at the end of the year and you wanna make it work for you in another way, try and see if you can status match to something else, to, to make it, uh, last a little longer on a different carrier or a different alliance.
But status matching can also be a great way to get some free bags. Um, the last. Tip I have here, Kyle, is just looking into the higher fares. Um, some of these higher fares, even some of these higher kind of economy or uh, premium economy, faires include a free bag or bags. Uh, you obviously have to do the math to see if it's worth it to upgrade to that fair, but.
Right now with $45 check bag fees, you're paying close to a hundred dollars for a check bag round trip. So if you see an upgrade that's say $120 and it includes a big fancier seat and much better service and some other things, uh, some other perks in your travels, it could be worth it. Um, I would just make sure before you just book that lowest fare outta reflex, take a look and see what it would be to include a check bag or two.
And if. In fact, just upgrading to first class might just get you what you need.
Yeah, this is, the math has definitely changed more towards. It may, it may make more sense financially, not just I wanna fly first class. That seems like a decent offer. You could come out ahead just with a first class upgrade.
I mean, the number of times when I've seen Delta first class upgrades from economy to first class to Chicago or Denver for less than a hundred dollars, in some cases, less than $75 at it, it could be much easier to come out ahead on these kinds of upgrades if you see a price that is truly pretty good.
Yeah. Is this all good advice? We think people can, uh, get through this with these higher baggage fees. Uh, it's just, it's changed the math a little bit. Um, there's still plenty of opportunity out there and especially if you have status or a co-brand credit card, uh, you won't have to worry about it at all anyway.
Uh, let's help out a listener, but before we get. To Phil, a reminder to submit your travel mistakes stories to podcast@thriftytraveler.com. Um, we've had so much fun with that episode a few weeks ago and gotten a few people who submitted their mistakes already and they're really great. Um, most importantly, every one of these makes me feel a little bit less bad about my performance last week.
Um. So thank you all for, uh, putting my mistakes into perspective. This is all in good fun. Uh, you know, if you have a, a truly catastrophic mistake, maybe don't share that one. But if you have something that is low stakes or may have just cost you a little bit of money, uh, share your travel mistakes with us.
We'd love to read them a future episode. Okay, Phil. He asks, I love your show and watch you guys every Thursday. I live in Cambridge, Maryland, and my wife is Vietnamese and we go to Vietnam every Christmas I have United Miles and I see there is an opening with Savor Award space for 55,001 way on December 25th and 26th, but.
The connections are through Amsterdam and Singapore to Ho Chi Minh City. My home international airport is Dulles. We normally go through Asia, westbound through Tokyo SEO or Taipei. Would you take the flight through Amsterdam and Singapore to Ho Chi Minh City to save Miles? Kyle, my question to you would be, would you fly to Asia by heading East?
Have you.
I have not.
Okay.
Not really looking forward to that prospect. It. I think it depends. If, if you need to go at this time of year, if you need to leave on that day, then I think book it now and then follow the advice that we always give, uh, it feels like we talk about this every week, is book what works, what will work.
Then keep looking for something better because maybe, you know, with your United Miles, a much better itinerary that does go through Tokyo is gonna pop up between now and dec mid, mid to late December when you go, I would say, you know, if that's the date you need, it's ironically kind of a good thing because.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are weirdly hotspots for better deals because most people just aren't traveling at that time. And everything about both flight prices and especially award availability, is just about supply and demand. And so if everybody's at home celebrating Christmas, and that's when you.
Actually want to leave, you may be able to hop on a better deal assuming you are in fact leaving on December 25th. So Phil, I like your odds of finding something better, but I wouldn't let that stop you from booking something that is going to get you where you need to go, hoping for something better later on.
Yeah, I mean, the prospect of two consecutive overnight flights, uh, sounds. Ruinous to the body, yes. But, uh, for the cheapest rate, I'd do it. And also, like you said, traveling on Christmas day, you might get a row to yourself on both of those. So all of a sudden you're in a, a relaxed row before the relaxed row and, uh, you're having a nice flight over to Vietnam.
Thank you, Phil, for writing in. If you want us to answer your questions on the podcast or if you have any feedback, hit us up at podcast@thriftytraveler.com. We might feature your question on next week's show to close. As always, we're going on the spot and it's my turn. I'm putting you on the spot. You ready?
Okay. Um, I will tease that in the coming weeks we're planning to do an episode about our favorite travel gear. And in that conversation, I suspect some luggage will be discussed. Uh, but since we're talking about baggage today, what is your favorite piece of baggage, emotional or travel?
Uh, emotional baggage would be no.
Um. I have a two me backpack, which is probably the single nicest thing I've ever bought myself. I bought it, I'm gonna go full Minnesota, and I bought it from TJ Maxx. It was on sale. Oh, okay. This is what we do. We brag about the discounts from the discount stores. Um, I bought it a couple of years ago, and it is probably the single most important piece of luggage that I have, not just because it's really nice, but more importantly because.
The reason I bought it is I could see just looking at the store, it has a spot for everything that I travel with and everything fits completely perfectly, and it still fits right under, you know, those small economy seats. Absolutely no problem. So it's got a spot for my headphones. It's got a spot for my computer charger.
It's got a sleeve for my laptop. It's got space to put in like a DOPP kit with all of my amenities as well as a water bottle. It's just absolutely perfect and the idea of traveling without that, if I ever lose that backpack, I will be lost. I just, I, I love it so much.
That's good. I'm still looking for that, that perfect backpack.
I still haven't found it. I've been, I've been trying. Different brands and different things and, um, I'm, I'm hopeful though. I'm hopeful for the near future that I found the one
go to TJ Maxx.
Alright. Thank you all so much for listening to the Thrifty Traveler podcast. Please rate us five stars on your podcast platform of choice and like, and subscribe to the show on YouTube.
Uh, send this episode to someone you know who needs a vacation, and if you have feedback for us, send me a note at podcast@thriftytraveler.com. I'd love to hear from you there, Kyle, tell us about the team.
This episode was produced by your favorite host, whose emotional baggage costs him much more than $90 round trip Gunner Olson.
It was produced and edited by Sylvia Thomas, and edited by Kyle Thomas. Our theme music is by Benjamin Teso. See you next week. See ya.