Home / Questions answered / American Airlines baggage fees
Fee scheduleTwo people, one flight, different bag fees. Here is why.
That is the price for a ticket issued on or after May 18, 2026. A ticket bought a day earlier is on a different tier, and American has four of them running at the same time.
Quoted from American Airlines
“Travel within / between the U.S., Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Canada, Caribbean (except Cuba / Haiti), Mexico, Central America (except Panama) and Guyana – 1st checked bag fee is $50 ($45 if you pay online) and the 2nd checked bag fee is $60 ($55 if you pay online). Pay $5 more for 1st and 2nd checked bag fees for Basic Economy tickets.”
Changes to bag allowances and fees have been updated as of May 18, 2026.
The rule nobody tells you: the fee follows the ticket, not the trip
American’s footnotes price the first checked bag in bands defined by the date the ticket was issued. Fly in December on a ticket you bought last November and you pay last November’s price.
American’s published first-bag tiers, read July 30, 2026. Second-bag fees move on their own separate dates, and the tiers differ again between Main Cabin and Basic Economy. Full footnotes are on AA’s page.
What a bag costs by region
Every figure below is American’s published base rate for a ticket issued today, per person and
per direction, taxes not included. American’s own table prints pairs like $50 / $55
with no
column labels, and they are not the online and airport prices. The first number is Main Cabin,
the second is Basic Economy, and both are the at-the-airport price.
| U.S. (incl. HI / AK), Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands | Main Cabin $50, Basic Economy $55 · 2nd bag $60 / $65 |
|---|---|
| Canada and Mexico | Main Cabin $50, Basic Economy $55 · 2nd bag $60 / $65 |
| Caribbean (except Cuba and Haiti) | Main Cabin $50, Basic Economy $55 · 2nd bag $60 / $65 |
| Central America (except Panama), Guyana | Main Cabin $50, Basic Economy $55 · 2nd bag $60 / $65 |
| Haiti | Main Cabin free, Basic Economy $50 ($45 online) · 2nd bag $65 |
| Panama | Main Cabin free, Basic Economy $55 · 2nd bag $100 |
| South America (except Guyana, Venezuela) | Main Cabin free, Basic Economy $70 · 2nd bag $100 |
| Venezuela | Main Cabin free, Basic Economy $70 · 2nd bag $150 |
| Trans-Atlantic (except India and Qatar) | Main Cabin free, Basic Economy $85 · 2nd bag $100 |
| India, Qatar and trans-Pacific | Free, Basic Economy included on tickets issued on or after Apr 23, 2026 · 2nd bag $100 |
| Australia and New Zealand | Free, Basic Economy included · 2nd bag $100 |
| Third bag, and every bag after it | $200 · was $150 on tickets issued on or before Apr 8, 2026 |
American Airlines, checked bag policy fee table and its footnotes, read July 30, 2026. AA states: All published bag fees apply at each check-in location and are base rates according to travel dates and destination; applicable taxes are not shown.
Cuba runs on its own separate table, which we have not reproduced.
On the India, Qatar and trans-Pacific row, Basic Economy gets a free checked bag only on tickets issued on or after April 23, 2026. Bought on or before April 22, and American charges $75 for the first bag on exactly the same flight.
The $5 online discount has a route list
Quoted from American Airlines
“Save $5 on the 1st and 2nd checked bag fees for travel within and between the U.S., including Hawaii and Alaska, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and Canada, Caribbean (except Cuba / Haiti), Mexico, Central America (except Panama) and Guyana.”
Read that list. It is a North America and Caribbean discount. American
separately excludes five countries from its best-price-online promise: Pay for your checked bags
online up to 2 hours before departure and receive the best price available for travel on American
Airlines marketed and operated itineraries (except to / from Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, India and
Peru).
The cutoff for paying online is two hours before departure.
Once you have paid, that money is gone
Quoted from American Airlines
“All bag fees are non-refundable when paid at the airport and apply per person, each way, even if you buy or get an upgrade that includes free checked bags. If you believe you were incorrectly charged for bag fees, contact an American representative for help or file a refund claim within 45 days.”
The upgrade clause is the expensive one. Pay for a bag, then get moved to a cabin where bags are free, and American keeps the fee. It says so twice on the page, in slightly different words each time. The 45 days is the only deadline on the page, and it applies to the claim, not to the flight.
Size and weight, before you get to the counter
| Size, all regions | 62 in / 158 cm, length + width + height |
|---|---|
| Weight, Main Cabin | 50 lbs / 23 kgs |
| Weight, First and Business | 70 lbs / 32 kgs free bags, 50 lbs / 23 kgs charged bags |
| To or from Australia and New Zealand | 70 lbs / 32 kgs free bags, 50 lbs / 23 kgs charged bags |
| Maximum bags, domestic and long-haul | 10 |
| Maximum bags, Mexico, Caribbean, Central and South America | 5 |
American Airlines, checked bag policy, read July 30, 2026
Who gets bags for free
Quoted from American Airlines
“If you have AAdvantage® status or oneworld® status, you may be eligible for up to 3 free checked bags on itineraries marketed and operated by American Airlines.”
| 1st bag free | Eligible AAdvantage credit cardholders on domestic AA itineraries, AAdvantage Gold, oneworld Ruby |
|---|---|
| First 2 bags free | AAdvantage Platinum, oneworld Sapphire, confirmed Domestic First, Business and Premium Economy |
| First 3 bags free | AAdvantage Executive Platinum and Platinum Pro, oneworld Emerald, Flagship First and Flagship Business Plus, active U.S. military on personal travel |
| Military on orders | 1st to 5th bags free of charge, with ID |
Two conditions attach to all of it. Your AAdvantage number has to be in the reservation, and
American warns that Free checked bags may not apply to codeshare flights operated by our
partners.
What this page does not tell you
| What does an overweight or oversize bag cost? | Not on this page |
|---|---|
| Fees for routes outside the published table? | Not stated |
| Is there a blanket “subject to change” clause? | No such sentence |
American links to a separate oversize and overweight page for those surcharges. We have not read it, so we do not quote a number for it. On the third row: American runs no catch-all disclaimer. It dates each fee tier instead.
Before you book
- Check what the fee was on the day you bought. If your ticket predates April 9, 2026, you may be on a cheaper tier than every current article says.
- Pay online, up to 2 hours out. $5 per bag, per direction, on the listed routes. On a return trip with two bags that is $20.
- Put your AAdvantage number in the reservation. Status does nothing for your bags if the booking does not carry the number.
- Do not pre-pay if an upgrade is likely. The fee is not refunded when the upgrade includes free bags.
- If you were charged wrong, you have 45 days. Not the trip length, and not a year.
Questions people actually ask
Is the second bag really more expensive than the first?
Yes, on North American routes: $60 against $50 at the airport. On most international routes it inverts, because the first bag is free and the second is $100.
Does Basic Economy get a free bag anywhere?
Australia and New Zealand, per American’s table. Everywhere else in the free-first-bag regions it is excluded, and to Asia, India and Qatar it was only included for tickets issued on or after April 23, 2026.
Other policies we have decoded
Every one of these is read from the company’s own document and dated. See all 59 questions we have answered.