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United Airlines has devised perhaps two of the most meta-level fees ever concocted: subscription plans that allow consumers to sidestep those irksome checked-baggage fees and to get more legroom.
The rates aren't low. For a year of extra legroom, United is charging $499. To avoid checked-baggage fees for a year, you'll have to shell out $349.
That means the annual basic rate to gain what travelers took for granted just a few years ago -- seats where your dining tray doesn't press against your knees and baggage check-in that's covered by the cost of your ticket -- will now set you back almost $850.
United becomes the first carrier to offer subscriptions that guarantee these "benefits," CNBC reports. It's also a sign that the airlines continue to innovate in at least one area: how to wrangle more money from travelers.
It's noteworthy that the $349 baggage subscription is the airline's lowest rate, covering only one free checked-in bag in the U.S. and Canada. Want to get coverage for two bags checked anywhere in the world? That will set you back $799.
So does it make sense to buy the subscriptions? Only if you make eight round-trip flights a year in the U.S. and always check a bag, according to FareCompare. (The man who is credited with devising the checked-luggage fee, by the way, flies his own plane or uses a carry-on, bypassing his own brainchild.)
Unless you're a die-hard United customer who always checks a bag, the subscription probably doesn't make sense.
For the airlines, though, fees provide billions of reasons to continue. Last year, the industry raked in a record $6 billion in airline fees, with United alone collecting $706 million in bag fees, FareCompare notes.
The rates aren't low. For a year of extra legroom, United is charging $499. To avoid checked-baggage fees for a year, you'll have to shell out $349.
That means the annual basic rate to gain what travelers took for granted just a few years ago -- seats where your dining tray doesn't press against your knees and baggage check-in that's covered by the cost of your ticket -- will now set you back almost $850.
United becomes the first carrier to offer subscriptions that guarantee these "benefits," CNBC reports. It's also a sign that the airlines continue to innovate in at least one area: how to wrangle more money from travelers.
It's noteworthy that the $349 baggage subscription is the airline's lowest rate, covering only one free checked-in bag in the U.S. and Canada. Want to get coverage for two bags checked anywhere in the world? That will set you back $799.
So does it make sense to buy the subscriptions? Only if you make eight round-trip flights a year in the U.S. and always check a bag, according to FareCompare. (The man who is credited with devising the checked-luggage fee, by the way, flies his own plane or uses a carry-on, bypassing his own brainchild.)
Unless you're a die-hard United customer who always checks a bag, the subscription probably doesn't make sense.
For the airlines, though, fees provide billions of reasons to continue. Last year, the industry raked in a record $6 billion in airline fees, with United alone collecting $706 million in bag fees, FareCompare notes.
