American Airlines wants you to check your bag. Fewer carry-on bags speeds up the boarding process, since passengers don’t take a few seconds each to stow their bag. And at the very end of boarding they don’t find that they’re out of bin space and have to race to gate check carry-ons. Anything they can do to reduce that time before departure is a win.
American Airlines in Paris
Southwest Airlines, which offers free checked bags, winds up gate checking bags far less often. They’re even able to turn planes around more quickly. That lets the airline run their optimal schedule more efficiently. They can run a similar schedule with fewer planes.
At the same time, American doesn’t want to match Southwest with free checked bags. They charge bag fees and don’t want to give up that revenue (or the tax benefit). They also use bag fees as an inducement for customers to get their credit card, and give them recurring business in exchange for bag fee waivers as a status benefit.
American Airlines Baggage Claim, Austin
So the airline tries to square this circle through something of a lottery. On domestic flights, passengers checking in at their kiosks may be offered the opportunity to check their carry-on for free. That gets it checked long before the gate, which speeds up the boarding process.
But they can’t offer it every time. If customers knew they’d get free checked bag offers at the kiosk they wouldn’t pay for checked bags! Hence, it’s a free checked bag lottery. Walk up to the slot machine kiosk and spin the bag fee waiver wheel.
This game of chance extended to international flights this past Wednesday, September 4th. It is not offered at check-in in Amsterdam, Copenhage, London Heathrow, Tokyo Narita, Santiago, St. Martin, or Toronto.
Here’s an internal memo from American describing the process.
If you’ve got a smaller bag, want to check it, you might as well see whether American Airlines will give you an offer to check it for free at the airport kiosk.