Checked bag fees are on the rise
After Jet Blue, United and two Canadian carriers also announce higher prices. Others may soon follow suit.
Higher bag fees are officially a thing.
Within a week of Jet Blue increasing the fees it charges some passengers to check luggage, United Airlines, Air Canada and West Jet all announced higher bag fees, with other carriers expected to join the movement soon.
United’s hike applies to flights in and out of North America, the Caribbean and Central America. Travelers can confirm the price for bags at United’s website for passenger fees.
Canada’s two largest carriers — Air Canada and West Jet — are raising their fees to $30 from $25 for the first bag, and to $50 from $30 for the second bag.
The move was initiated by Jet Blue, which raised its fees Monday to $30 for the first checked bag and $40 for the second bag for travelers booking the cheapest fares.
Only Spirit Airlines, which charges a variable fee based on when passengers pay the charge and on the route being flown, charges more than $30 to check the first bag. Most other major carriers charge $25 for the first checked bag.
The increases by United and Jet Blue are expected to be followed by other airlines, and suggest that carriers may be motivated by shrinking profit margins due to rising jet fuel prices, industry experts say.
“The big surprise isn’t that airlines are doing this. It’s that the going rate remained $25 for nearly a decade, considering all the other fees that have increased during that time,” said Seth Kaplan, managing partner for the trade publication Airline Weekly.
Airlines are more likely to raise passenger fees to compensate for higher fuel costs rather than raise airfares because the price of fares is the primary deciding factor when travelers book a flight, experts say.
LAX tests new screening method
Travelers flying out of the Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport are being photographed as part of a pilot program intended to better monitor foreign nationals who are leaving the country.
The 30-day pilot program, a partnership between the Transportation Security Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, is one of several new efforts by the two federal security agencies to use state-of-the-art technology to speed up and bolster the airport screening process.
Under the program, cameras snap photos of travelers as they prepare to be screened for international flights out of LAX. The photos are optional but may become mandatory for foreign nationals if the technology is retained after the test, the TSA said. The cameras use facial recognition technology to match the faces of departing travelers with data collected by government agencies about each foreign national who enters the country.
The technology, according to customs officials, quickly helps identify foreign travelers who may be wanted for crimes, visa violations or attempting to use phony passports. The cameras are being used at four security lanes at the terminal.
“Through the use of biometrics, TSA is taking steps to raise the baseline for aviation security and using technology to improve and streamline the passenger identification process,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said in a statement. “Ultimately, we believe this will lead to better security, faster.”
Because LAX is the second-busiest airport in the country, it makes a good testing ground for new technology.
TSA officials have also begun testing an identification authentication system — a device that can automatically read a government-issued ID, verify its authenticity and confirm whether the ID holder is on the passenger list of a plane that is about to board at the airport.
At Terminal 1, the TSA has also been trying out a computed tomography scanner, which utilizes the same technology used for medical diagnoses. The scanner is taking the place of a traditional X-ray scanner. Whereas an X-ray takes two-dimensional images, the CT scanner can create a 3-D image of the contents of a carry-on bag, which an examining TSA agent can rotate to better identify objects inside.