I got to talking about this with some buddies last night over sushi – they travel for business a lot more than I do, but were out for a mini sort of triathlon training camp – anyway, one guy offered up a great theory on this increase. His theory, and I tend to concur the more I think about it, is that what United is ultimately trying to do is free up cargo room space so they can make room for and take extra cargo that they can charge for and make additional money on.

You see, it is a well known fact that when there is available space in the cargo hold on the flight, airlines charge a fee to companies to utilize this space and carry their contents for them. So, If they can keep an extra percenttage of room open, they can then sell that space via taking cargo from paying sources such as UPS, USPS, 1800Flowers, etc. This way, they make more money on the sold cargo area than your $25, but if they do use up that valuable cargo space, the $25 helps them make some money off that space that they lost to sell/rent to the companies that needed it to ship some items.

A quote read elsewhere, “United Airlines said new luggage fees it has imposed on travelers will generate more than $100 million annually.”