In a new remarkable gesture to loyal passengers, five major United States airlines have committed themselves to not charging a fee for carrying on bags. This announcement, which came on Sunday, came despite the fact that some of these airlines that said this are expected to report first quarter losses next week.

For 26 other United States airlines, these so called ancillary fees account for up to 6.9 percent of their total operating revenue in the third quarter of 2009. This is up from 4.1 percent that was seen a year earlier.

Experts say that larger airlines risk the chance of alienating customers if they choose to follow in the footsteps of Spirit Airlines. This small Florida airline will, in August, start charging customers up to $45 to place a bag in the overhead bin inside a plane.

However, a lot of these fees have not stopped people from flying. Of course, experts are quick to point out that a lot of these fees can be avoided. For many travelers, it would be hard to avoid a fee for carrying on a bag.

A spokesman for American Airlines, Roger Frizzell, said that they believe that it is something that is important to their customers. Thus, the airline will continue to make the service of carrying bags onto the plane free of charge.

The good news is that customers will still have a choice if they choose to not pay the baggage fee. However, it does mean that they will have to fly with the few selected airlines that have chosen not to charge this fee.