American Airlines has raised the price to check a bag for the first time in more than five years and said it would limit which travel agency bookings are eligible to earn frequent flyer miles. Passengers will pay $35 to check a first bag for domestic flights if the service is booked online in advance, or $40 if they purchase the option at the airport, the carrier said Tuesday. Both options previously cost $30. A second checked bag will cost $45, up from $40, whether purchased in advance or at the airport. Travelers’ first checked bag on flights between the U.S. and Canada, the Caribbean or Mexico will be $35 whether in advance or at the airport. American Airlines last raised bag fees in September 2018 along with other major airlines. Carriers are looking for ways to increase revenue as airfare has declined over the past year. The last inflation report showed airfare fell more than 6% in January from a year earlier. “Our cost of transporting bags is significantly higher” over the past few years, said Scott Chandler, American’s senior vice president of revenue management and loyalty. “Fuel is a big component of it.”<br/>
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An American Airlines flight attendant arrested on suspicion of trying to secretly video record a 14-year-old female passenger using an airplane bathroom last September is being held in custody pending trial. Police have also alleged that Estes Carter Thompson III, 37, of Charlotte, North Carolina, had recordings of four other minor female passengers using lavatories on an aircraft he had worked on previously. During an initial appearance Tuesday in federal court in Boston, Thompson agreed to voluntary confinement until trial. He did not enter a plea and a lawyer appointed for Thompson declined to say how he would plead. Investigators said that about midway through the Sept. 2, 2023, flight from Charlotte to Boston, the 14-year-old got up to use the main cabin lavatory nearest to her seat but found it was occupied. Thompson then told her the first-class lavatory was unoccupied and escorted her there, investigators said. Before she entered the bathroom, Thompson allegedly told her he needed to wash his hands and that the toilet seat was broken, they said. After he left, the teen entered the bathroom and she saw red stickers on the underside of the toilet seat lid, which was in the open position, officials said. Beneath the stickers, Thompson had concealed his iPhone to record a video, investigators said. The girl used her phone to take a picture of the stickers and concealed iPhone before leaving. Thompson then immediately went back into the bathroom. Law enforcement officers met the plane at the gate after it landed. A lawyer representing the family member of the 14-year-old have said they are suing the airline.<br/>
Qantas Airways said on Wednesday John Mullen will join the company board as chairman-elect from July 1, and replace its outgoing chair Richard Goyder ahead of the Australian flag carrier's annual general meeting in October. Mullen is currently the chairman at Treasury Wine Estate as well as independent and non-executive chair at logistics firm Brambles. He also served on the board of Telstra for 15 years, before retiring as chairman after the telecom major's annual meeting last October. Treasury Wine and Brambles did not immediately respond to a Reuters' request for comment over the status of Mullen's role in both companies following the fresh appointment at Qantas. The New South Wales-based carrier also appointed Nora Scheinkestel as a non-executive director and chair of Qantas' remuneration committee. The appointments, which came in four months after Qantas said Goyder would step down in late 2024, are a part of the airline's board renewal to restore trust among investors and fix its battered reputation. Goyder, who became chairman in 2018, has previously fought against pressure to resign including from the airline's pilots, saying that he had followed high ethics throughout his career. Alan Joyce, who was Qantas' CEO for 15 years, retired early last September after a public backlash. The airline had said Joyce's exit would help "accelerate its renewal", giving the sense of a company bowing to public and political pressure after years of weathering it.<br/>