You Won’t Have to Pay Airline Baggage Fees on Delayed Bags Anymore

Thanks, Obama!

Good news for all frequent flyers:

Airlines Will Have to Refund Baggage Fees for Delayed Luggage

The White House announced efforts on Tuesday to improve air travel by requiring airlines to refund baggage handling fees if luggage is “substantially delayed” and requiring online travel agents to provide neutral search results.

[…]

The effort in the waning days of President Barack Obama’s administration is aimed at responding to complaints from consumers that range from delayed or damaged baggage and wheelchairs, to pricey add-ons like payments for seat assignments.

I love the idea that President Obama is all “Okay, my term’s almost up, what’s left on the to-do list… how about baggage fees? Do people really need to pay baggage fees when their bags are delayed? Let’s fix that.”

Charging for checked bags is only about as old as the Obama administration, as it turns out. I went searching for “when did airlines start charging for bags” and found this post from economist David Friedman:

As best I can determine by a quick google, the first airline to do so was American, which only started charging for checked luggage in 2008.

(I know that Obama did not take the oath of office until January 20, 2009, but still.)

What about the other half of the announcement, the whole “requiring online travel agents to provide neutral search results” thing? The White House is trying to prevent online flight aggregators from putting one airline at the top of its search results because that airline paid to get the top spot. All airlines must be ranked neutrally, which… I’m not sure what that means, but I’m guessing that they’ll have to be visible in a way that can be easily and accurately sorted by price, departure time, and so on.

But I’m very delighted to hear that we won’t have to pay baggage fees on bags that are delayed! At $25 per bag—a little more than the cost of smashed avocado on toast—that’s enough money for us to start saving up for a down payment on a house. 😉

Smashed Avocado Is Not Keeping Us From Home Ownership

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