Flying overseas? Limit your number of checked bags!

If you're planning to travel outside the United States and want to check baggage, plan to pay a hefty fee to check those bags — say, something on the order of $50 per bag.

American Airlines recently joined Delta, Northwest (now a subsidiary of Delta) and most of the other major U.S. international airlines in adding the $50 charge for a second piece of checked luggage for autumn flights. Why is this happening?

For the most part, it's the combination of both much lower levels of passenger demand for travel and continued relatively high fuel costs for airlines. Carriers have to find a way to survive the latest downturn, and the development of these new fees during last year's spike in fuel prices showed the big U.S. airlines -- Southwest being the lone big holdout -- that they can collect significant fees for certain services in order to make up for their revenue shortfall.

In fact, the 10 biggest U.S. airlines collected $566.3 million in baggage fees during the first quarter of 2009, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. That's a fourfold increase from first quarter 2008, when checked-bag fees for flights within North America had not yet been widely adopted.

"I think we are just at the beginning of international fees," said Henry Harteveldt, travel analyst with Forrester Research Inc., told Associated Press.

American's new fees apply to travel to Europe, India and the Caribbean for tickets purchased on or after Sept. 14. Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines, which it acquired last year, had added luggage fees on tickets booked to Europe for travel on or after May 23.

US Airways imposes $15 for a first bag and $25 for a second piece of luggage on flights to Latin America. Continental Airlines charges passengers $25 for a second checked bag to South and Central America.

Airlines are moving to an a la carte system, where economy-cabin passengers pay only for the services they want — something that some small new-entrant airlines like MaxJet, which recently went bankrupt, attempted over the past few years. The charges don't usually apply to first-class and business-class passengers or elite members of the carriers' frequent-flier programs.

- by Jim Brown , Reporter for HelloFlight.com  (Click to leave a message)