With one more airline (Frontier) changing their policies in the last few weeks to charge for checked baggage it seemed useful to look again at how airline baggage fees vary by airline. Also, the size and weight of bags you can check or carry-on are dependent on your carrier. You can click on the name of an airline to see more details on their policies. Kirsten, my assistant who did this research, did declare that she would never again fly Ryan Air after reading their official baggage policies:
8.3.2 You must not include in Checked Baggage money, jewelry precious metals, keys, cameras, computers, medicines, spectacles, sunglasses, contact lenses, watches, mobile phones, personal electronic devices, negotiable papers, securities, cigarettes, tobacco or tobacco products or other valuables, business documents, passports and other identification documents or samples.
8.3.3 If, despite being prohibited, any items referred to in this Article 8.3 are included in your Baggage, we shall not be responsible for any loss or damage to such items.
To be fair, what they are saying is that it is unwise to place valuables in checked luggage. But it does appear that they only want you to carry socks in your checked luggage.
Fees
Consider baggage fees before you book your ticket. A cheaper ticket may not really be cheaper.
Policies
Save yourself hassles and unexpected costs by checking the luggage policy of your carrier before you fly.
Airline Baggage Fees and Policies
| Airline | Max.Carry-On Luggage Size (Length, Width, Height) | Max Carry-On Weight | Max. Personal Bag Size (Length, Width, Height) | Carry-On Bag Fee | Gate Checked Bag Fee | First Bag Checked Fee | Second Bag Checked Fee | Checked Bag Max Weight | Max Size |
| Air Canada | 21.5″ L x 15.5″ W x 9″ H | 22 lb | 17″ L x 13″ W x 6″ H | free | not specified | Free | $20.00 | 50 lbs | 62″ (total L+W+H) |
| Air France | 21.5″ L x 14″ W x 10″ H | 26.5 lb (total carry-on + personal) | not specified | free | not specified | Free | 50 lbs | 62″ (total L+W+H) | |
| Alaska Airlines | 22″ L x 14″ W x 9″ H | not specified | not specified | free | not specified | $25.00 | $25.00 | 50 lbs | 62″ (total L+W+H) |
| Allegiant Air | 22″ L x 14″ W x 9″ H ($10-$75 fee) | 25 lbs | 15″ L x 16″ W x 7″ H (Free) | free | up to $75 | $20-$50 | $20-$50 | 40 lbs | 80″ (total L+W+H) |
| American Airlines | 22″ L x 14″ W x 9″ H | not specified | Not to exceed 36″ total (L+W+H) | free | not specified | $25.00 | $35.00 | 50 lbs | 62″ (total L+W+H) |
| ANA | 22″ L ×16″ W ×10″ H | 22 lbs | not specified | free | not specified | Free | $100.00 | 50 lbs | 62″ (total L+W+H) |
| British Airways | 22″ L x 18″ W x 10″ H | 51 lbs | 18in x 14in x 8in | free | not specified | Free | $85(advance)/$100(at airport) | 50 lbs | 35.5in x 29.5in x 16in |
| Cathay Pacific | 22″ L x 14″ W x 9″ H | 15 lbs | not specified | free | not specified | Free | Free | 50 lbs | 62″ (total L+W+H) |
| Delta Airlines | 22″ L x 14″ W x 9″ H | not specified | not specified | free | not specified | $25.00 | $35.00 | 50 lbs | 62″ (total L+W+H) |
| Emirates Airline | 22″ L x 15″ W x 8″ H | 15 lbs | *Economy class ONLY 1 item allowed | free | not specified | Free | Free | 50 lbs | 62″ (total L+W+H) |
| Frontier Airlines | 24″ L x 16″ W x 10″ H | 35 lbs | 18″ L x 14″ W x 8″ H | $25-$50 | $50.00 | $20(online)/$25(airport) | $30.00 | 50 lbs | 62″ (total L+W+H) |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 22″ L x 14″ W x 9″ H | not specified | not specified | free | not specified | $25.00 | $35.00 | 50 lbs | 62″ (total L+W+H) |
| JAL | 22″ L ×16″ W ×10″ H | 22 lbs | not specified | free | not specified | Free | Free | 50 lbs | 62″ (total L+W+H) |
| Jetblue Airways | 24″ L ×16″ W ×10″ H | not specified | not specified | free | not specified | Free | $40.00 | 50 lbs | 62″ (total L+W+H) |
| LAN | 21.5″ L x 14″ W x 10″ H | not specified | not specified | free | not specified | Free | Free | 50 lbs | 62″ (total L+W+H) |
| Lufthansa | 55 cm x 40 cm x 23 cm | 17.5 lbs | 30 cm x 40 cm x 10 cm | free | not specified | Free | $100.00 | 50 lbs | 62″ (total L+W+H) |
| Qantas | 22″ L x 14″ W x 9″ H | 15 lbs | not specified | free | not specified | Free | Free | 50 lbs | 62″ (total L+W+H) |
| Qatar | 50cm x 37cm x 25cm (20″ x 15″ x 10″); | not specified | not specified | free | not specified | Free | Free | 23kg
(depends on route) |
62″ (total L+W+H) |
| Ryan Air | 55cm x 40cm x 20cm | 10kg | 35 x 20 x 20 cms | free | not specified | $21-$104 (based on weight, season, online or airport) | 44 lbs | not specified, will not transport anything larger than 31″ x 47″ x 47″ | |
| Southwest Airlines | 24″ L ×16″ W ×10″ H | not specified | not specified | free | not specified | Free | Free | 50 lbs | 62″ (total L+W+H) |
| Spirit Airlines | 22″ L ×18″ W ×10″ H | not specified | 16″ L x 14″ W x 12″ H (Free) | $25-50 | $100 | $21-45 | $31-$55 | 50 lbs | 62″ (total L+W+H) |
| United Airlines | 22″ L x 14″ W x 9″ H | not specified | 17″ L x 10″ W x 9″ H | free | not specified | $25.00 | $35.00 | 50 lbs | 62″ (total L+W+H) |
updated April 10, 2018
Luggage Fees – Rookie Traveler Tax
Find the Best Airline Seat – SeatGuru.com
Joe d’Eon, Airline Pilot and host of “Fly With Me” – Episode 72
6 Reasons to Love EasyJet / 6 Reasons to Hate EasyJet
by Chris Christensen
Chris Christensen is the creator of the Amateur Traveler blog and podcast. He has been a travel creator since 2005 and has won awards including being named the "Best Independent Travel Journalist" by Travel+Leisure Magazine.+Chris Christensen | @chris2x | facebook
9 Responses to “Airline Baggage Fees and Policies (with Chart)”
Leave a Reply
Tags: air travel, airline, article, featured, travel 101
sabretoothedchickenstour
Says:May 17th, 2014 at 3:22 am
Great post Chris. Doesn’t this stuff drive every traveller crazy! Probably why we overland as much as possible.
Saw your travel blogging tip on hostelbookers and visited your site for inspiration.
chris2x
Says:May 17th, 2014 at 7:08 am
cool, glad to know that some of those guest posts work 🙂
Travel Tip of the Day: The Carry-on Crackdowns Continue - Johnny Jet
Says:May 28th, 2014 at 1:30 pm
[…] two bags. And make sure to know your airline’s baggage rules before you get to the airport! Here’s a great post on all the policies and fees of all the major carriers courtesy of Amateu…, who wrote it in to share it with […]
David Burren
Says:January 6th, 2017 at 2:07 pm
Good to see an updated list Chris, but be careful about over-simplifying things!
For example Qantas don’t always give you two checked bags! That’s affected by how fancy a ticket you buy (and what FF class you’re in).
Or maybe you’ve just simplified it to only talk about the baggage rules that apply when flights are going to/from North or South America? For many airlines the rules for the rest of the world are different!
A footnote pointing out that this is a only summary might be a good idea, and STRONGLY advising people that they check their airlines’ policies for the specific routes and tickets they’re looking to buy. Otherwise someone is going to come a cropper and be very unhappy!
chris2x
Says:January 7th, 2017 at 10:54 am
thanks David for keeping me honest 🙂
Andrew Rein
Says:October 16th, 2017 at 12:26 pm
When was this table last updated, and please put dates on all your content. Table contains info from Air-Tran, no longer flying.
Do you have transcripts for all of your podcasts.
Thanks for the great work.
chris2x
Says:October 18th, 2017 at 1:06 am
That post was from 2014, will look at putting in update dates.
No, we did transcriptions for a while for every episode, back when we had a sponsor covering the cost, but not for the most recent episodes. You can see transcripts at https://amateurtraveler.com/tag/podcast-transcript/
Susan Adie
Says:August 14th, 2019 at 5:15 am
Hello!
Interesting information and thank you for putting into a clear easy to read format. However – the left side where there are remarks is cut off on what I am seeing here. Is it possible to get it sent to me in a PDF format?
Thanks again! Very timely
Chris Christensen
Says:August 14th, 2019 at 7:33 am
I have added in a way to download it as a PDF