United Gives Free Checked Bags Again to Star Alliance Silver Members

United used to give Star Alliance elite members really outstanding treatment — including economy plus seating for Gold members and a generous checked baggage allowance for Golds and Silvers.

Long after economy plus extra legroom seating went away,

Now the United baggage fee details page has been updated to show once again that Star Alliance Silver members — frequent flyers with the lowest-tier status level of their airline alliance partners — will get a free checked bag when flying United.

Oddly, then, Star Alliance silver members now have the same free checked baggage allowance that Star Alliance Golds get. (And neither gets economy plus seating.)

Both then and now United remains compliant with Star Alliance checked bag policies, since the alliance doesn’t require free checked bags for silvers. But it’s nice to see that back. Perhaps United has found that treating partner elites less well meant getting less business from partner airline elites.

The easiest Star Silver to obtain is Aegean Airlines Miles&Bonus. 4000 status miles in a year qualifies for Silver, and you get 1000 status miles just for signing up for the program. So you only need 3000 qualifying miles to hit silver. And once you earn a status you keep it as long as you keep your account active. So for those paying attention, it’s lifetime Star ALliance Silver status — at least as long as Aegean stays in business, as a Star Alliance member, and doesn’t change its frequent flyer program rules.

Of course you can also get free checked bags by becoming a United Explorer credit card holder.


About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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  1. […] United Airlines gives back the free checked bag benefit to Star Alliance Silver members.  This seemed like scraping copper off the penny on United’s behalf when they enacted this change last year.  Sure, they make a few bucks on a checked bag here and there.  But, it just struck me as being very cheap with your fellow alliance members.  United has rescinded this change and I can’t imagine it hurts them much financially.  It may even be a net positive if it encourages folks with Star Alliance status to book with United. […]

Comments

  1. It would be very nice to get 2 bags as *G or at least 1 @ 70 lb. 1@ 50 lb is very difficult for me to manage and they’re ultra strict on the weight. To the point that I now avoid UA at all costs and fly on AA or even DL instead…

  2. @David:

    As a general rule, *G does not get E+ on United, only United Silver and above.

  3. Looks like they didn’t like giving free bags to US Airways during their exit from star alliance

  4. UA reduced partner Star Silver baggage allowance domestically to zero free bags well before US had decided to exit Star Alliance.

  5. When did US eliminate free first bags domestically for partner Star Silvers? Were UA*S exempted from US’s first bag fee on domestic US flights, and when did that exemption end?

  6. Gary, I’m * silver thru TK, how do I get the free bag on a UA flight? By entering my TK FFP #?

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