I heard on the news last night that starting in May United Airlines is going to start charging $25 for a 2nd bag to be checked in and $100 for the 3rd and 4th bag. They said it was due to the increases in the cost of fuel.

Another good reason to renew our vows to pack even "lighter."

Sorry, but it is another good reason to let United know that their usual "charge more and deliver even less" service model will NOT work, just like the "charge for aisles seats" didn't work either.

I haven't read the specifics. But is their limit for the weight of one bag also 50 pounds as many other airlines? If so, you can take one 50 pound bag for free, but if you take two 20 pound bags it will cost you $25? This is related to the cost of fuel -- how?

If this is truly about fuel costs, then they need to take the weight of the passenger into consideration, as well.

Here's a link from this morning:

http://chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=28032

Patrick I could not agree more. I remember packing for a funeral and I had a large suitcase that weighed about 52 lbs, They were going to charge me, so I quick took out some shoes and put them in my tote. There were still 52 lbs of stuff on that airplane...gee it made a huge differance ;-) on THAT flight.

The current policy is TWO bags checked for free either not weighing more than 50 pounds.

Judy, but the 50 pound limit is a baggage handling thing. I lift that much on and off trains and in and out of car trunks all the time, but guys who lift luggage for a living can't manage that.
Once the two of us packed everything in the large rolling duffle going to NYC in winter, and it weighed 55 pounds. I zipped it open, removed one microfiber raincoat and started zipping it back up, but the agent said, "you'll have to take out more than that". "No, I won't", I said. She weighed it and sure enough 49 pounds. I already knew those damn coats weigh 6 pounds each, but they were so good in sub zero NYC last February during the record breaking cold snap.