In case you needed yet one more incentive to cram all of your travel items right into a carry-on, Delta Airlines just boosted the price of your first checked bag by 17%.
The rise adds $5 to the previous, and not-exactly-insignificant, $30 fee for domestic flights.
Delta is the third major US carrier to hike bag fees prior to now several weeks.
Its move follows similar increases that American Airlines and United Airlines announced in February, three days apart; those high fees themselves followed fee hikes by smaller carriers Alaska Airlines and JetBlue Airways.
Major US carriers often copy each other’s pricing changes, a move that behavior analysts sometimes seek advice from as herd instinct.
Delta said Tuesday that the primary bag checked on a domestic flight will now incur a $35 fee.
The charge for a second bag rose from $40 to $45.
Delta last raised bag fees for domestic flights in 2018.
The airline said the rise will help it sustain with unspecified rising industry costs.
Customers with status perks can still check their first bag totally free; those with firstclass tickets can check two free bags.
Bag fees have grow to be a dependable income for airlines since American introduced them in 2008, when jet fuel prices were surging.
In 2022, the last full yr for which statistics can be found, US airlines took in $6.8 billion in checked-bag fees, led by American at $1.4 billion and United at $1.1 billion.
Delta was in third place with $979.4 million.