Free checked bags with a credit card

Airlines have used the recent spike in oil prices as an excuse to raise checked bag fees. With the fees for first checked bags now commonly costing up to $50, a family of 4 might end up paying $400 in bag fees for a round trip flight within the United States.

Fortunately, in the U.S., most airlines offer some kind of free checked bag benefit to customers who hold a co-branded airline credit card that carries an annual fee. And if you fly more than once or twice a year, or if you fly with a family, this is often the most economical way to get checked bags if you don’t have frequent flyer status with an airline.

Here’s everything you need to know about getting free checked bags with your favorite airline

• Biggest things to understand
• Credit card checked bag benefits by airline
• Air Canada
• Alaska Airlines
• American Airlines
• Delta Air Lines
• Frontier Airlines
• JetBlue
• Southwest Airlines
• Spirit
• United Airlines
• Other ways to get a free checked bag
• Bottom line: Your credit card is a “subscription” to checked bags

Biggest things to understand

In general, most airlines will a free checked bag benefit of some sort to holders of their branded credit cards that charge an annual fee.

If it’s just you who needs a free checked bag, that’s pretty much all you need to understand. However, if you’re traveling with someone (or multiple someones) it can be helpful to understand that many airlines allow free checked bags for multiple people in your reservation. (Details are below, in each airline section.) That said, you can also often benefit if someone else flying with you gets a free checked bag from their credit card—meaning that this benefit can be relevatn to you even if you don’t hold the card.

Finally, remember that in most cases, you’ll only get a free first checked bag from your credit card. You won’t get an additional bag if you already get one from your freuent flyer status or some other benefit.

Credit card checked bag benefits by airline

Here are the details on the checked bag benefits available via credit cards on the major U.S. airlines.

Air Canada

If you’re flying on Air Canada, you can get a free checked bag by having the Aeroplan® card.

Aeroplan® Card
Bags	Travelers	Rules
(1)	+ (9 total)	Do not need to pay with the card. Only available on flights where the first segment is operated by Air Canada. You must also check in with Air Canada

Air Canada may not be highly relevant to most readers of this blog, but it is one of the largest air carriers in North America and Chase offers a co-branded card in the U.S. market, so we’re including it on this list.

Alaska Airlines

Alaska Airlines’ benefit is relatively straightforward: You get a free checked bag on Alaska Airlines flights for you and up to six companions when you use your card to purchase your flight.

Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature® Atmos™ Rewards Visa® Business Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite®
Bags	Travelers	Rules
(1)	+ (7 total)	Must pay with the card. Only available on Alaska- and Hawaiian-marketed flights operated by Alaska, Hawaiian, or one of their regional carriers. Purchases made through a third party, including travel agents, may not be eligible.

The real downside to the Alaska Airlines credit card free checked bag benefit is that you must purchase your Alaska flight using your card to qualify. If you don’t yet have the card and have already purchased your flight, you should expect that you will not get a free checked bag from your credit card.

Read Alaska’s FAQs about free checked bags.
Best Alaska credit card welcome offers.

American Airlines

American Airlines offers a first free checked bag for domestic flights operated by American and its regional operators. Entry-level cards grant up to four companions the same benefit, and up to eight companions get the benefit with the Globe- and Executive-level cards.

Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard®
Bags	Travelers	Rules
(1)	+ (5 total)	Do not need to pay with the card. No free checked bag on international routes AAdvantage account must be opened 7 days prior to travel.
Citi®/ AAdvantage® Globe™ card Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®
Bags	Travelers	Rules
(1)	+ (9 total)	Do not need to pay with the card. No free checked bag on international routes AAdvantage account must be opened 7 days prior to travel.

Probably the biggest quirk of American Airlines is that the free checked bag doesn’t apply to international flights. In most cases, for most fares, you’ll get a free checked bag for the international flight, regardless of your credit card status.

But if you’re flying to short-haul international destinations like Canada or Mexico or flying to many destinations in basic economy, you’ll end up needing to pay for bags or get them some other way. More details are available at American’s bag policy page.

View American Airlines’ checked bag policy.
Best American Airlines credit card sign-up bonuses.

Delta Air Lines

All of Delta’s credit cards with an annual fee offer a free first checked bag when the first flight on your itinerary is with Delta Air Lines or its regional operators.

Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card The business variants of all of these cards also offer the same checked bag benefit
Bags	Travelers	Rules
(1)	+ (9 total)	Do not need to pay with the card. First segment must be marketed and operated by Delta. Must check in with Delta

Per the bag benefit terms and conditions, you must check in with Delta to receive the benefit and your flight must be both marketed and operated by Delta. Practically, if Delta’s paint is on the plane AND your board pass has a Delta flight number, you’ll receive your benefit.

However, there may be cases where you need to check in with another carrier for your Delta flight. By a strict reading of the terms and conditions, Delta does not have to offer a free checked bag in this case, but we haven’t seen cases where our readers have been denied a first free checked bag if the flight is operated and marketed by Delta.

Read Delta’s checked bag policy.
Compare Delta credit cards.
Best Delta credit card welcome offers.

Frontier Airlines

Frontier isn’t an airline I follow closely because I’ve probably only flown them once in the last decade, but it does offer one credit card and that credit card offers free checked bags. Here are the details.

When doing the research for this article, I was surprised to see that Frontier’s credit card offered free checked bags. I believe that, when Frontier relaunched this card a few years ago, they did not offer this benefit. As it was explained to me, baggage fees was such a large part of the intended cost of the flight that the economics didn’t work to offer them for free. I’m glad that they have changed course.

Learn how Frontier charges for bags. Scroll down on this page for the bag price checker.

JetBlue

JetBlue allows you and up to 3 companions to check your first bag for free when traveling on JetBlue flights.

See JetBlue’s checked bag policy and pricing.

Southwest Airlines

It’s still a bit weird to talk about needing a credit card to get a free checked bag with Southwest, but here we are. Since Southwest does not offer a no-annual-fee credit card, all of Southwest’s cards offer a free first checked bag benefit.

All Southwest credit cards
Bags	Travelers	Rules
(1)	+ (9 total)	Do not need to pay with the card. Applies only to flights booked and operated with Southwest.

Southwest has announced its intention to introduce more partnerships with other airlines, so it will be interesting to see what happens to the checked bag benefits as more of those partnerships are introduced. As of right now, I would expect that the free checked bag benefit would not apply to flights that include partners.

Read Southwest’s checked bag policy.
Compare Southwest credit cards.
Best Southwest credit card sign-up bonuses.

Spirit

Surprisingly, one of the most punitive carriers when it comes to bags is one of the most generous when it comes to offer free checked bags to its credit card members… at least to the cardmember. If you’re traveling with friends or family, however, the’ll be out of luck—the free checked bag benefit applies only to the cardholder.

While Spirit allows two checked bags to holders of its premium credit card, some international destinations restrict the number of bags you can take, so be sure to double check Spirit’s bag policies if you’re traveling internationally with more than one bag.

See Sprit’s bag info for more on bag dimensions and destination restrictions.

United Airlines

United is unique among U.S. mainline carriers in offering the first two checked bags to customers who hold its higher-tier premium credit cads and requiring you to pay with your card, with some exceptions. Here are the free checked bag benefits offered by United:

The United℠ Explorer Card The United℠ Business Card
Bags	Travelers	Rules
(1)	+ (2 total)	Must pay for flight with the card. This requirement is waived for 90 days following account open date. United and United Express flights only. Unpublished fares, such as those published on Hotwire and Priceline are not eligible.
The United Quest℠ Card The United Club℠ Card The United Club℠ Business Card
Bags	Travelers	Rules
(2)	+ (2 total)	Must pay for flight with the card. This requirement is waived for 90 days following account open date. United and United Express flights only. Unpublished fares, such as those published on Hotwire and Priceline are not eligible.

The exceptions make the requirement to pay for your United flights with your United credit card is somewhat confusing. Generally, you must pay for your flight with your United credit card, but this requirement is waived for the first 90 days you have your card.

This could result in a situation where you get blocked from using your free checked bag benefit if you’re booking flights further out, and then later getting the card.

Read United’s credit card holder bag policy.
Compare United credit cards.
Best United credit card sign-up bonuses.

Other ways to get a free checked bag

Of course, having an airline credit card isn’t the only way to get a free checked bag. Here are some other ways that you might be able to get a free checked bag.

Frequent flyer status. Most airlines offer a checked bag benefit to their frequent flyers, which can sometimes be more generous than the free bag benefit that you can get from a credit card. Usually, this checked bag benefit extends to everyone on your reservation, so if you’re flying with someone with even a low tier of frequent flyer status, you may not need a credit card to get a checked bag.

Bags included with your fare. Most premium cabin airfares include some baggage allowance as part of the ticket purchase price. If you’re flying on a Premium Economy ticket or higher, you may be allowed to check bags because of the ticket you bought.

Free bag at check-in. If you have a full flight, some airlines may ask if you want to check your carry-on bag for free at the kiosk during check in. While this isn’t something you can count on, we’ve personally seen this option when flying on Delta and reportedly others have seen it on American.

Checked bag at the gate. When a flight is full, the limited overhead bin space can fill up fast. Often, if you ask at the gate, you can get your bag checked to your final destination for no charge. Major carriers will usually do this for free without charge, but low-cost carriers that charge for cabin baggage will usualy require you to pay for bags checked at the gate.

Bottom line: Your credit card is a “subscription” to checked bags

The best way to think of most airline credit cards is as an annual subscription to the baseline benefits that they provide. If you’re flying often enough on your airline of choice that it’s worth paying the subscription fee (the card’s annual fee) to receive the checed bag and other benefits, it makes sense to hold that airline’s credit card.