American Airlines Executive Platinum Members Can Check Up To 210 Pounds of Luggage for Free
See title.
Moving makes me feel stupid. I don’t do it very often, so when the occasion does come around, I don’t really know what to do. But it seems like one of those things where someone who optimizes can potentially save a lot of time or hassle, but it’s unclear how much time to invest researching things since it’s a rare event.
So I’m moving soon and was looking into transporting my stuff. I don’t have that many belongings, but I am not yet at the point where I can throw all of my material belongings into a carry-on bag (although I do feel perfectly comfortable living out of a carry-on essentially indefinitely). I briefly looked into shipping boxes, but then I wondered what exactly my checked baggage allowance was as an Executive Platinum flyer on American Airlines.
It turns out that Executive Platinums, oneworld Emerald members, and First and Business class passengers all get three checked bags for free, each weighing up to 70 pounds. That’s up to 210 pounds of free shipping! It turns out that this isn’t that unusual as Delta and United provide the same checked baggage allowances to their top-tier elites and premium cabin passengers, but it was news to me since I try to avoid checking bags whenever possible.
Granted, there’s still the business of hauling 210 pounds of checked baggage (not including your carry-on baggage) to/from the airport, but it’s a potentially useful benefit every once in a while.
Back when UA used to allow 3 checked bags per *S/*G member, my family and I checked in a ton of moving boxes as our luggage. Saved a lot of money.
I’m with Jim – simply having the *G was huge for travel on United/US Airways in the past. When our family moved, we were able to move 210 pounds of luggage per person for free. It made for a lot of bags – 17 counting the two we did pay for – but it was nice to get to have it with us instead of having to ship it (and pay for it). Now, we are down to 2 bags at 50 each.