Memorial Day Travelers Meet the New Price of Travel

The great American travel question is no longer, “Window or aisle?”

It’s, “Hydrated or solvent?”

Delta Air Lines ended complimentary snacks and drinks for main cabin and comfort customers on flights of 350 miles or less on Tuesday (May 19), Fox Business reported. It’s a change that affects roughly 9% of its daily flights.

The airline calls it consistency. The passenger hears, “Buy water before boarding or prepare to make meaningful eye contact with the seatback safety card.”

This is the new economics of travel. The flight may be the headline purchase, but the journey is increasingly monetized in the margins. Airports have captive-audience pricing. Airlines have ancillary pricing. Somewhere between the security checkpoint and Row 27, your bottle of water, carry-on bag, printed boarding pass, aisle seat and emotional stability all become optional upgrades.

In New York-area airports, the official answer to, “What would water cost?” is actually less apocalyptic than expected. Port Authority guidance requires concessionaires to offer at least one $2 water bottle and caps prices at 15% above local street prices, the New York Post reported.

The trick, of course, is finding the $2 bottle before thirst convinces you that smartwater is a retirement asset.

Ten years ago, airport-water outrage was already a genre. In 2015, a lawsuit over bottled water at LAX alleged Hudson was charging $4 to $5 a bottle, while one retailer wanted to sell smartwater for $2.55, Fortune reported.

That now looks almost quaint. Today’s airport pricing has matured from annoying markup into behavioral economics with fluorescent lighting. A traveler buying water after security is not shopping; they are negotiating with biology.

The airport hall of fame still belongs to New York. The Port Authority tightened pricing rules after customers were charged $27.85 for a beer at LaGuardia and $10.90 for fries at Newark, prices officials called “totally indefensible,” The City reported.

Even after the crackdown, LaGuardia has remained a poster child for expensive airport drinking. One 2024 ranking put its average domestic beer at $13.83, ahead of San Francisco, Dallas-Fort Worth and JFK, the New York Post reported.

LAX, meanwhile, has moved in a more laissez-faire direction, removing its 18% above-street pricing cap on most food, beverage and retail items, while keeping exceptions for water, baby products, feminine products and over-the-counter medications, according to Los Angeles World Airports.

Portland International Airport is the rare pricing monk in this monastery of markups. Vendors there are required to charge the same prices at the airport as they do on the street in Portland, according to Travel Oregon.

Airlines, naturally, looked at this environment and said, “Hold my checked bag.”

Delta now lists $45 for a first domestic checked bag and $55 for the second for standard main and comfort travelers without exemptions.

American Airlines’ latest domestic schedule is even spicier. The airline charges $50 for the first bag, $60 for the second and $200 for the third when purchased at the airport, with basic economy customers paying $55 and $65 for the first two bags.

United Airlines has moved to $45 for the first bag and $55 for the second, with another $5 if you check less than 24 hours before departure, the Associated Press reported.

Southwest Airlines, the former patron saint of “bags fly free,” now lists $45 and $55 first- and second-bag fees for many mainland U.S. trips ticketed or changed.

Compared with a decade ago, the suitcase has gone from nuisance to profit center. In 2017, legacy carriers were still commonly charging $25 each way for a domestic checked bag, according to FareCompare. In 2018, American, Delta and United moved the first bag from $25 to $30, and the second from $35 to $40, CBS News reported.

U.S. airlines collected $3.8 billion in baggage fees in 2015, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. By 2024, BTS had an entire 2007-2024 dataset devoted to baggage fees, while published analyses of that federal data put 2024 baggage-fee revenue at a record $7.3 billion.

For the worst airline offender, Frontier deserves the innovation trophy, possibly shaped like a tiny receipt. Its optional services page lists airport agent assistance up to $25 per passenger, web check-in up to $5, a carrier interface charge up to $23 per segment, seats from $15, and onboard snacks and drinks from $3.50.

That’s not a fee schedule. That’s a tasting menu.

Then there are seat fees, the industry’s most elegant way of charging people not to sit in the middle of a family argument.

A Senate report found that American, Delta, United, Frontier and Spirit generated $12.4 billion in seat-fee revenue from 2018 to 2023. It also found that in 2023, United charged as much as $319 for an extra legroom seat and Spirit charged as much as $899 for a Big Front Seat. In 2024, Delta charged up to $264.99 for the same perk.

The travel hack, then, is no longer secret fares. It is tactical self-preservation. Bring an empty bottle, pack snacks, prepay bags, download the app and never assume basic means complete.

The airport is still a place where people go to take flight. It is also, increasingly, a beautifully lit mall where hydration has a pricing strategy.