In case you needed yet another incentive to cram all your travel items into a carry-on, Delta Airlines just boosted the cost of your first checked bag by 17%. The increase adds $5 to the previous, and not-exactly-insignificant, $30 fee for domestic flights. Delta is the third major U.S. carrier to hike bag fees in the past several weeks. Its move follows similar increases that American Airlines and United Airlines announced in February, three days apart; those high fees themselves followed fee hikes by smaller carriers Alaska Airlines and JetBlue Airways. Major U.S. carriers often copy one another’s pricing changes, a move that behavior analysts sometimes refer to as herd instinct. Delta said Tuesday that the first bag checked on a domestic flight will now incur a $35 fee. The charge for a second bag rose from $40 to $45. Delta last raised bag fees for domestic flights in 2018. The airline said the increase will help it keep up with unspecified rising industry costs. Customers with status perks can still check their first bag for free; those with first class tickets can check two free bags. Bag fees have become a dependable source of revenue for airlines since American introduced them in 2008, when jet fuel prices were surging.<br/>
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A Delta Air Lines pilot stopped with open bottles of alcohol in his bags has pleaded guilty to being over the limit before he was due to fly a passenger plane from Edinburgh to New York. Lawrence Russell, 63, was stopped and searched by airport security in Scotland in June last year, later pleading guilty to reporting for duty as a pilot while being impaired through drink or drugs. During the search he was found to have two bottles of Jägermeister in his luggage - one of which was half full, according to the BBC. Russell, who is from the US state of Georgia where Delta is based, had been due to fly a Boeing 767 full of passengers from Edinburgh to New York before he was detained. During a routine luggage inspection at around 8am on 16 June at Edinburgh Airport, security personnel were alerted to the alcohol in Russell’s bag. He was reportedly dressed in his pilot uniform, visibly identified as a Delta Air Lines crew member and was immediately questioned by the police after the alcohol was found.<br/>