Bag fees
Checked bag fees of every US airline in 2026
Pick an airline, the number of bags and travelers: the calculator adds up the round trip from the airline’s own fee table, online or at the counter.
Bag fees for your trip
American Airlines, round trip, 1 traveler
$90
| Checked bag 1, each way | $45 |
| Per traveler, each way | $45 |
Fees read on American Airlines’s page (archived copy) on July 13, 2026.
After a round of increases between late March and mid-April 2026, the first checked bag costs $45 each way on Delta, Southwest, Alaska and Hawaiian, and the second $55. American charges the same $45 for the first bag only when you pay online, $50 at the airport, and $55 or $60 for the second. JetBlue asks $45 and $59 when the bag is added more than a day ahead, $49 and $69 later. United publishes $45 prepaid for the first bag but shows the others only in a calculator. A third bag is $200 on most of them and $150 on Southwest. Frontier and Allegiant set the price flight by flight. Fees are per bag, per traveler and per direction, so a couple with one bag each on Delta pays $180 for a round trip.
Does the airline’s co-branded card pay for itself in bag fees?
First checked bag fees avoided in a year
$360
| Net of the annual fee | $360 |
| First bag, each way | $45 |
Airline co-branded credit card: first checked bag free for eligible cardholders on domestic American-operated itineraries (AAdvantage number must be in the reservation). Number of companions covered is not stated on this page.
Sizes, fees and rules read by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How we check
The fee table of each US airline
Seven US airlines publish their checked bag fees as a fixed table for domestic flights. The figures below are those of the standard economy fare, for a bag within the weight and size limits, each way. Where the airline gives two prices, the first is paid in advance on its website or app and the second at the airport. Where a page could only be read on an archived copy, the date shown is that of the copy.
| Airline | 1st bag | 2nd bag | 3rd bag | Read on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | $45 online, $50 airport | $55 online, $60 airport | $200 | July 13, 2026, archived copy |
| Delta Air Lines | $45 | $55 | $200 | October 26, 2026 |
| United Airlines | $45 online, $50 airport | not published on the page read | not published on the page read | October 11, 2026, archived copy |
| Southwest Airlines | $45 | $55 | $150 | October 26, 2026 |
| Alaska Airlines | $45 | $55 | $200 | October 26, 2026 |
| JetBlue | $45 online, $49 airport | $59 online, $69 airport | $200 | October 26, 2026; airport prices from an archived copy of the Contract of Carriage |
| Hawaiian Airlines | $45 | $55 | $200 | October 26, 2026 |
United is the gap in the table. Its checked bag page, read on an archived copy of October 11, 2026, gives the first bag at $45 prepaid, $50 in the lobby and $75 at the gate for tickets bought from April 3, 2026, but the second and third bag fees appear only inside United’s own fee calculator, so they are left blank here rather than guessed. JetBlue’s two prices follow its own logic: the lower one when the bag is added more than 24 hours before departure, the higher one, from the Contract of Carriage, after that.
Airlines that price bags flight by flight
Frontier and Allegiant have no fixed table. Frontier sells bags as extras, at a price that moves with the route and the travel date, and its bag page gives no single figure for a checked bag. Allegiant’s fee page, read on an archived copy of September 30, 2026, gives a range for the carry-on, $10 to $75, but no fixed figure for a checked bag. On both, the only reliable price is the one on the booking screen for your flight. Remember also that their weight limits differ: Frontier’s standard checked bag stops at 40 lb (18.1 kg), ten pounds under the others, and Allegiant accepts larger bags, up to 80 linear in (203 cm).
Spirit Airlines stopped flying on May 2, 2026, according to a Houston Airports press release. It is left out of every comparison on this site; its page keeps the last rules it published, for travelers with an old booking or a refund question.
Bag fees for your trip
Delta Air Lines, round trip, 1 traveler
$200
| Checked bag 1, each way | $45 |
| Checked bag 2, each way | $55 |
| Per traveler, each way | $100 |
Fees read on Delta Air Lines’s page on October 26, 2026.
What changed in 2026, airline by airline
Every large US airline moved its bag fees in the spring. In each case the new fee applies according to the date the ticket was bought, issued or, on some airlines, changed. A trip flown in summer on a ticket bought in February kept the old fee.
| Airline | Tickets from | Fee concerned | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| JetBlue | March 27, 2026 | 1st and 2nd bag, within 24 hours of departure | $49 and $69 |
| United | April 3, 2026 | domestic bag fees; Basic Economy carry-on checked in the lobby or at the gate | carry-on $40/$65 to $50/$75 |
| Delta | April 8, 2026 | 1st and 2nd bag | $35 and $45 to $45 and $55 |
| American | April 9, 2026 | 1st, 2nd and 3rd bag, airport price | $40, $50, $150 to $50, $60, $200 |
| Southwest | April 9, 2026 | 1st and 2nd bag, US Mainland | $35 and $45 to $45 and $55 |
| Alaska and Hawaiian | April 10, 2026 | 1st, 2nd and 3rd bag, North America | $40, $45, $150 to $45, $55, $200 |
| JetBlue | April 17, 2026 | 3rd and later bags | up to $200 |
| American | May 18, 2026 | Basic Economy, 1st and 2nd bag online | $50 and $60 |
Frontier also raised the surcharge for a bag of 51 to 99 pounds from $100 to $129 for bookings from April 4, 2026; the overweight fee page compares those surcharges.
Five ways to pay less
First, pay online where it matters: on American, the saving is per bag and per direction, so four bags on a round trip save four times. Second, fit the trip in a carry-on: on American, Delta, Southwest, Alaska, Hawaiian and JetBlue the carry-on is included on every fare, which makes the checked bag optional for a short trip. Third, share a bag: two travelers with half-empty bags pay two fees, one well-packed bag of 50 pounds pays one. Fourth, think twice about a third bag: at $200 each way on American, it adds $400 to a round trip. Fifth, check whether you qualify for a free bag through the airline’s co-branded credit card, elite status or military service; the free checked bags page gives the rules of each airline and the calculator below sets the card’s annual fee against the bags it saves.