Originally Posted by
xrayflyer
As I've stated United is free to charge whatever they want and certainly did and made $425 off of me when they were my only option at the time due to a cancelled Southwest flight which would only charge me $75.
I've posted this information just as a warning eg take Southwest if you have oversize luggage and save $350.
Spirit is an airline that has the unconventional fee of $100 at the gate to take a roll on carry on luggage. On a short flight that costs $50 on another airline this seems excessive.
In my case United charged $425 where Southwest would charge $75 for the same service. Even if you are able to find United's charges, they won't tell you can get the same service on Southwest for $75 so at least to me that's useful information for other fellow travellers to be aware of.
Unfortunately you didn't have a lot of choice if you wanted to travel without waiting for the next Southwest flight. Just as a counter example: last year someone posted about how much it would cost to travel SFO-LAX with three 70lb bags on Southwest. They were quite pleased when I pointed out how much cheaper F on UA would be. So, as you point out, awareness of fee schedules is important.