JetBlue Baggage Fees: What Your First Bag Costs

JetBlue's carry-on can measure up to 22 by 14 by 9 inches, wheels and handles included, and the airline publishes no weight limit for it, only that you need to be able to lift it yourself. The personal item, a bag that fits under the seat, tops out at 17 by 13 by 8 inches.

Both are free on every JetBlue fare, including its lowest tier. That's a meaningful detail because it wasn't always true, and a chunk of the baggage content still online was written before it changed.

JetBlue also allows both items together with no combined weight cap, unlike KLM or Air France, which weigh the cabin bag and personal item as one shared allowance. As long as each item clears its own dimension limit and you can lift the carry-on into the bin yourself, you're covered.

Notably, JetBlue doesn't split this allowance by route the way its checked bag fees are split by domestic versus international travel. The free carry-on and personal item apply the same way whether you're flying JetBlue within the U.S. or on one of its transatlantic routes.

JetBlue's cheapest fare is Blue Basic. Before September 6, 2024, it only included a personal item, and bringing a full carry-on meant paying extra or checking it. JetBlue's own announcement, titled JetBlue Gives Blue Basic a Boost with Complimentary Carry-On Bag Starting September 6, changed that.

Since that date, Blue Basic includes the same free carry-on and personal item as every other JetBlue fare, with no weight limit beyond being able to lift the bag yourself. If you're reading older advice that says Blue Basic is personal-item-only, it's out of date.

The change mattered because Blue Basic is JetBlue's cheapest, most heavily booked fare tier, and losing the carry-on used to be the single biggest baggage complaint associated with it. Since 2024, that specific complaint has effectively been resolved by policy, not by any change in the published dimensions.

For domestic flights (U.S., Caribbean, Latin America, Canada) on Blue, Blue Basic, Blue Extra, or EvenMore fares, paying online at least 24 hours before departure on an off-peak date runs $45 for the first bag and $59 for the second. On peak-season dates (President's Week, Thanksgiving, winter holidays, and peak spring or summer travel), those rates rise to $49 and $69.

Wait until within 24 hours of departure or pay at the airport, and the price climbs again, to $49 off-peak or $59 peak for the first bag, and $69 off-peak or $79 peak for the second. A third checked bag is a flat $200 regardless of timing. Blue Plus, Mint, and Mosaic 1 through 4 travelers get the first bag free; Mint and Mosaic 2 through 4 also get the second bag free, while Blue Plus and Mosaic 1 still pay the standard second-bag fee.

Worth flagging separately: JetBlue does not charge Blue Basic passengers a higher checked bag fee than any other fare, which puts it in a different category from American and United, both of which do charge Basic Economy passengers extra for checked bags. JetBlue's pricing structure is peak-versus-off-peak and online-versus-airport, not fare-tier based.

Delta charges a flat $45 for a first checked bag and $55 for a second, regardless of when you pay or the time of year, a simpler structure than JetBlue's peak and off-peak split. American runs close to JetBlue's off-peak online rate, $45 for a first bag prepaid, $55 for a second, but adds its own surcharge on Basic Economy tickets that JetBlue doesn't apply to Blue Basic.

In practice, JetBlue's off-peak, prepaid rate undercuts American's second-bag price slightly, while its at-the-airport rate can run higher than either Delta's or American's flat prices during peak season. The lesson that applies across every airline in this comparison holds here too: pay online, in advance, whenever the option exists.

A standard JetBlue checked bag can weigh up to 50 pounds and measure up to 62 total inches. Go over on weight, and both the 51 to 70 pound band and the 71 to 99 pound band cost an extra $150 on top of your standard bag fee. JetBlue won't accept anything over 99 pounds.

Oversize works the same way: a bag between 63 and 80 total inches adds another $150 to the standard fee, and JetBlue won't accept anything over 80 total inches at all. Unlike American or United, JetBlue does not charge Blue Basic a higher checked bag fee than its other fares, the standard rate applies across the board.

If you're anywhere close to either threshold, 50 pounds or 62 inches, it's worth weighing and measuring the bag at home. A bag at 52 pounds and a bag at 68 pounds both land in the same $150 overweight band, so there's no benefit to being just barely over versus well over, only a real cost to being over at all.