What Your Bags Will Really Cost

The comparison nobody shows you

Airline search results rank on fare. Bags are priced afterwards, separately, per leg, and often per direction. The result is that a $39 fare with $70 of bags loses to an $89 fare that includes them, and you will never see that on the results page.

There are four ways to move a suitcase, and the cheapest is not obvious:

• Pay the fees. Simple, and usually the default because it is the only option presented.
• Upgrade the fare. On many carriers the fare band that includes a checked bag costs less than the bag would cost bought separately, and it often carries seat selection and priority boarding as well.
• Ship the bags. For heavy, awkward or sports equipment this is frequently cheaper than airline excess, and the bag is waiting when you arrive.
• Fly a different airline. Once bags are counted, the ranking of your options can invert entirely.

Fees are usually per leg

This trips people up more than anything else. A one-way itinerary with a connection is often two legs, and on separate tickets you may pay twice. Count each separately ticketed flight, not each journey.

What we cannot know for you

Status, co-branded credit cards, military allowances and fare-class exemptions all change the answer, and they are specific to you. Enter the fees you were actually quoted rather than a published rack rate, and the comparison will be right.