American Airlines Checked Bag Fee Settlement Will Refund Elite Flyers

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A Massachusetts federal judge has preliminarily approved a class action settlement over American Airlines’ alleged practice of promising free checked bags to elite flyers and then charging them up to $200 per checked bag.

If granted final approval, eligible AA flyers will be able to claim between $18.75 and $200 plus interest for each incorrectly checked bag.

U.S. District Court Judge William Young preliminarily approved the deal on June 22.

“The court preliminarily approves the settlement […] as fair, reasonable and adequate, subject to further consideration by the court at the fairness hearing,” wrote Judge Young. “The settlement is sufficiently fair, reasonable and adequate to warrant providing notice to the settlement class.”

The preliminary approval also certified a settlement Class and directed notice for the potential Class Members. The American Airlines checked bag fee settlement will compensate verified Class Members with a full refund for at-issue baggage fees, including interest.

American Airlines has said that they will begin contacting Class Members within a couple weeks of preliminary approval and create a settlement website to communicate information and deadlines with eligible Class Members.

“Only settlement Class Members who file claim forms and have verified claims will be entitled to refunds,” the settlement agreement warned.

The American Airlines baggage fee complaint was brought by Harvard professor Max Bazerman. Bazerman is Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration at the prestigious university and the Co-Director of Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership.

Bazerman brought the class action lawsuit against American Airlines, alleging that he was charged baggage fees in December 2016 after being previously promised free checked bags for being a Platinum member of the airline. Bazerman claims this practice is common and that the airline has been promising free checked bags to their “elite” consumers since July 2013, only to charge them fees at the airport ranging from $25 to $200.

Although American Airlines promised free bags to their elite consumers, the airline’s software allegedly forces passangers to pay for their checked bags even if they have a contract that promises otherwise. In his original complaint, Bazerman argued that the software, Passenger Service System, may have contributed to the $1.117 billion American Airlines profited from checked bags fees in 2016. This huge profit put American Airlines 28% ahead of its competitors in similar profits.

“AA drafted each contract that it enters into with each of its passengers. The contracts include AA’s promises to provide air travel for a price, and to provide other benefits, such as transporting a certain number of the passenger’s checked bags for no additional charge,” the American Airlines baggage fee class action lawsuit claimed. “However, AA failed to honor its checked bag promises in the standardized software system that AA uses to determine whether passengers must pay for checked bags when they check in at the Airport.”

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Bazerman is represented by Benjamin Edelman of the Law Offices of Benjamin Edelman, and Linda M. Dardarian, Byron Goldstein and Raymond Wendell of Goldstein Borgen Dardarian & Ho.

The American Airlines Checked Bag Fee Class Action Lawsuit is Bazerman v. American Airlines Inc., Case No. 1:17-cv-11297-MB, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

UPDATE: July 2018, the American Airlines checked baggage fees class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.