Delta Air Lines has just quietly increased checked bag fees, following the lead of several other US airlines.
Continue reading: Delta Air Lines Raises Checked Bag Fees
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Not always. I'd argue DL is the industry leader in the miles devaluation business, nobody does it as well as DL.
Airlines don't necessarily announce price or fee changes and fare and fee changes are never retroactive; DL isn't being secretive in not announcing a fee change or how it has applied but they still may do so.
As I expected, there was a good possibility that DL would not raise baggage fees as much as some of its competitors and that appears to be the case.
Multiple news agencies have covered this (CNBC, etc), and they reference a press release, so this does not seem to be a secret fee increase. Maybe someone in IT pressed the go-live button a few minutes early. I figured this was coming, given that others had increased. There were also rumors of the 20 minute guarantee ending; I figured if this was coming to an end, it would be coupled with a fee increase ("Delta Baggage Changes" announcement). It could still be coming, but hopefully this was just a rumor.
Delta is a premium airline, Tim. I expected so much more. When I fly Delta, I think I am on Singapore Airlines or Qatar Airways, not on Spirit. This is so upsetting. I may need to start flying American....
Maybe not. Could be the leader of un-turn-able lavatories, upgrade list for coach plus seats, not putting alliance members into partner airline list, no upgradable miles for JV partners, no unlimited club access for club level credit cards, mile devaluation, and most importantly, being the World's No. 1 pReMiUm AiRlInE!
Luggage forwarders such as Lugless have never really gained traction mostly because there is/was always a premium to shipping versus checking. But I do wonder if this will push atleast a sliver of people into luggage forwarders as well as exploring other options to deal with rising fees, including slimming down, buying stuff when you get to your destination etc.
Also, i just discovered the hard way that you are now limited to just one free bag internationally. I had been getting three. I'm Platinum, but a Delta counter agent says it applies to Diamond, too, even if you have the Reserve card (which I do). The Platinum agent did not even know of this change.