@JLeslie With all due respect, September 11th is still hurting most of the employees of all major airlines as well as the bottom dollar for the companies. SWA is an exception as their business plan is completely different.
The airlines have started to charge per item for everything because the ticket prices are still at a historic low. About 40% of each ticket is tax and security fees that our government gets. On top of that, people are traveling with more and more weight every year including their own body weight. (The more an airplane weighs, the more expensive it is to fly)
As far a baggage fees are concerned and airlines making a fortune, keep in mind that until the last year or so all airlines (except SWA) were losing billions.
Do me a favor and research what a round trip ticket would have cost a passenger in 1980 and compare that cost for the same flight today and adjust for inflation. You will be amazed.
Before deregulation only the top of society could afford to fly. Today almost all Americans can afford to take a flight with a little planning.
On a side note just for info, United airlines lost two beautiful airplanes on September 11th. Total cost for the insurance company to replace those airplanes was over 230 Million dollars for the airframes alone. That was before any lawsuits, loss of service, et cetera. If you think for a second the cost of insurance of an airplane didn’t go way up on September 12th, think again. The cost of running an airline is astronomically higher today because of the affects of the attacks.