Passengers on United Airlines started paying $25 to check a second bag Monday, and some weren’t happy about it.
United, the largest carrier at Denver International Airport, in February said it planned to start charging the fee to travelers with domestic economy tickets, effective Monday. Other major carriers followed the move.
“That’s really ridiculous,” said Eric Leviton, an actor from New York traveling from Denver to Pittsburgh on business Monday. “They’re looking for any way to stick it to you,” he said after paying $25 for a second checked bag at the United check-in counter.
Leviton said he usually takes long trips and is used to having two bags for two weeks’ worth of clothing.
“That’s just about as light as I can get,” he said.
United said one in every four of its passengers who check bags checks a second bag. The fee “enables us to keep low fares,” United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said.
United estimates the new bag fee will be worth about $175 million annually.
Mike Berryman, a photographer from Littleton leaving for a trip to Hawaii on Monday with golf clubs and a suitcase to check, said the extra fee “stinks.” Many people traveling with skis during the winter are also expected to be affected.
“Ticket prices are going up already. With this added on, it’s getting hard to travel,” said Robert Smith, a truck driver from Los Angeles at DIA on Monday.
Smith said he has been considering shipping clothes or carrying on more baggage.
The new policy applies to tickets bought on or after Feb. 4 for travel within the United States and Canada. United frequent fliers with premier status or higher, or silver status or higher with the Star Alliance, can still check two bags for free.
The second-checked-bag fee is in addition to United’s $2-per-bag fee for skycap services.
Bonnie Botham of Wheat Ridge said she noticed the new $25 second-checked-bag fee when she checked in online for her flight Monday. She decided to pack a bigger bag rather than check two.
Char Tholen, returning to Minneapolis with her family after her daughter’s graduation from Regis University, said she thinks the $25 fee is fair.
The airlines are “having a terrible time,” Tholen said. “They need to make money.”
Kelly Yamanouchi: 303-954-1488 or kyamanouchi@denverpost.com
More stuff or overstuffed?
United Airlines’ new baggage-fee schedule:
$0: One checked bag.
$25: A second bag.
$100: Each for bags three through six.
$100: The fee for a bag weighing more than 50 pounds also went up — so it may be cheaper to pay the fee for a second bag than to consolidate two bags into one.
Mike Berryman of Littleton shepherds his bags toward the United counter Monday.
