American Airlines joins the herd and hikes bag fees

When it comes to fleecing us, it's the airlines that always move in a herd.

On Friday, American Airlines announced that it, too, will be raising its checked baggage fees. It did not come to this decision on its own. Continental and Delta both did it last Tuesday.

In college, my economy professors told me that the free market would always ensure that the best product for the cheapest price would be the one to prevail. Apparently that's not so. Whether it's in fares or fees, the big airlines don't even give Americans a chance to decide which one they're going to favor. They move en masse so that they're nearly indistinguishable. I'm told this is legal somehow.