On November 27, 2024, a report released by a subcommittee of the United States Senate revealed that several American airlines have collectively charged passengers billions of dollars in seat selection fees over the past few years, along with forcing some passengers to pay additional baggage fees.
According to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, from 2018 to 2023, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Spirit Airlines, and Frontier Airlines, charged a total of $12.4 billion in seat selection fees. These fees included additional legroom seats, as well as seats closer to the front of the plane, window seats, or aisle seats.
The report highlighted that United Airlines earned $1.3 billion from seat selection fees and $1.2 billion from baggage fees last year, marking the first time since at least 2018 that the revenue from seat selection fees surpassed that from baggage fees for the company.
The subcommittee spent a year investigating and found that airlines are increasingly using algorithms to set fees.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, the chairman of the subcommittee and a Democrat from Connecticut, stated in a release, “This report lifts the veil on strategies like dynamic pricing, which exacerbates the burden on passengers, increasing the income of airlines.”
The report also specifically criticized Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines. These two low-cost carriers reportedly paid $26 million to gate agents between 2022 and 2023 to “catch passengers allegedly not complying with airline luggage policies, often forcing these passengers to pay baggage fees or miss their flights.”
Following the release of the report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, the aforementioned airlines have issued statements rebutting the claims made in the report, asserting that their pricing is fair and transparent.
Blumenthal mentioned that the subcommittee he leads has summoned airline executives to testify before Congress on December 4th.