Baggage fees by airlines for domestic flights in the US

I came across this piece of news from Skift

JetBlue Airways is raising fees for checking bags again by $5 — to $35 for the first one and $40 for the second — on flights within the United States.

Baggage fees in the US have become a significant source of revenue for airlines in the US. In 2018, baggage fees brought more than $4.5 billion in revenue for major airlines in the US, compared to $1.1 billion in 2008. Throughout the first three quarters of 2019, the figures are well on their way to surpass the 2018 ones. Though I understand the monetary perspective through which many look at this issue, I find it annoying that airlines seemingly take advantage of customers this way. We often travel with luggage and for some certain routes, there are very few options as only one or two carriers operate on the routes. Customers have little freedom to choose.

I compiled the baggage policy of major US airlines below, as well as some information on their baggage revenue and how much of the total revenue it makes up.

“Low price” airlines such as Frontier and Spirit have a significant portion of their revenue from baggage fees. The low prices are often misleading as we rarely travel without a carry on. Only an addition of carry-on fees will reveal the whole cost of a flight ticket with the low price airlines. Among the bigger carriers, as far as I know, only United Airlines (not shocked at all) charges customers for carry-on in certain cases.