Northwest to start charging for a second bag

There's a 95 percent chance Senior Editor Christine Sarkis is thinking about travel right now. Follow her on Instagram @postcartography and Twitter @ChristineSarkis.

Christine Sarkis is an SATW-award-winning journalist and executive editor at SmarterTravel. Her stories have also appeared on USA Today, Conde Nast Traveler, Huffington Post, and Business Insider. Her advice has been featured in dozens of print and online publications including The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, and People magazine. She has also shared travel tips on television and radio shows including Good Morning America, Marketplace, and Here & Now. Her work has been published in the anthologies Spain from a Backpack and The Best Women's Travel Writing 2008. She is currently working on a travel memoir.

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Add Northwest to the growing list of airlines charging passengers for checking a second bag. Delta, United, and US Airways recently changed their policies, and now Northwest has jumped on the bandwagon and will begin to charge passengers $25 each way for that second checked bag starting on May 5.

According to this Business Week article, the airline is also doubling its fee for overweight bags to $50. The new second-bag rule won’t apply to first-class passengers, who will still get three bags for free.

My guess is that to avoid these fees, passengers will begin checking larger bags and trying to carry on more stuff. So get ready for more back problems and slower boarding.

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