We have the lowest Surcharge in the U.S. Yea. Honestly, I think it’s ridiculous to do this, I’m sure that one of two things happens, U.S. Airways follows and then we drop it or everyone will have it and the U.S. government will get mad. Either way, this is not good publicity.
By the way, the fee is for tickets purchased after January 5 for travel on or after January 12.
A Delta spokeswoman called the airline’s fees “competitive” with other carriers.
Yes, they are VERY competitive, and they’re in the lead by a comfortable margin! 
redlegsfan21
I’m not knocking your company but it now makes more sense for me to fly SW with no bag fees to PDX then delta or Continental airlines.
“Competitive” usually means we’ll have the same rates (fees, salary, whatever) as other companies. In other words, “competitive” is just another word for matching what others do.
Southwest: Yes! The only way I’d fly a legacy or other carrier now is if the price was so low that it made sense to fly them or they were the only way to get someplace. Hell, it’s worth flying to a place 2 hours away from my destination if it means I don’t have to play the nickel-and-dime crap the airlines are doing today.
Time to fly Southwest, baby!!!
If you choose your airline based on a $7 change in the bag fee - you are a cheapskate.
Also, not every passenger checks a bag, in fact, most of them don’t.
I know bag fees are “evil” but I would like to note that the average domestic ticket price in the U.S. jumped from $297 during 1995 2Q to a whopping $301 during 2Q 2009. Now I can’t find data based on airlines but I did find that between 2000 and 2009, the average fare at Dallas-Love went up 27.6%, the highest during that period, Houston-Hobby came in at #5 with an increase of 15.6%, Chicago-Midway came in at #10 with an increase of 8.8%. The rest of the top ten include Reno, Burbank, Savannah, El Paso, Newport News, Islip, and Spokane. So the conclusion can be that Southwest is the only airline really increasing their airfares based on the fact that 3 of their “hubs” had increases in airfare. The next hub I found was Las Vegas at #21 (3.2%) and Memphis at #24 (1.1%). The average is -13.0%.
Antitrust lawsuit filed with Delta and AirTran over baggage fees:
Case will be thrown out. Airlines compete nationally, not just in Atlanta and several other airlines had instituted a bag fee before either Airtran or Delta.