Today, “US Airways generally charges higher bag fees than AA” for travel from the United States to international destinations. Post-merger, US Airways would likely raise American’s ancillary fees to US Airways’ higher fee levels as part of a “fee harmonization” process. US Airways’ own documents estimate that “fee harmonization” would generate an additional $280 million in revenue annually—directly harming consumers by the same amount. A US Airways presentation from earlier this year analyzing the merger identifies American’s lower bag fees as a “value lever” that US Airways “will likely manage differently with tangible financial upside.” The analysis concludes that “[i]ncreasing AA baggage fees to match US creates significant revenue impact.” US Airways also plans to institute its fees ($40 on average) for the redemption of frequent flyer tickets on American’s existing frequent fliers, who currently are not charged for mileage redemption.

A December 2012 discussion between US Airways executives included the observation that after the merger, “even as the world’s largest airline we’d want to consider raising some of the baggage fees a few dollars in some of the leisure markets.”

Both US Airways and American have considered imposing a first checked bag fee on flights to Europe but have refrained from doing so. US Airways seriously considered leading such a price move but was concerned that other airlines would not match: “We would hope that [other airlines] would follow us right away . . . but there is no guarantee . . . .” Ultimately, US Airways concluded it was “too small” to lead additional checked bag fees for flights to Europe. Postmerger, that would no longer be true. The merged firm would be the world’s largest airline, giving it sufficient size to lead industry fee and price increases across the board.