Sun Country Baggage Fees: Carry-On Is Never Free

The carry-on limit is 24 x 16 x 11 inches, including wheels, handles, and any other protruding parts, and it can't weigh more than 35 pounds. That's larger than the common 22 x 14 x 9 inch limit used by American, Delta, and United, but the size doesn't matter much if you're expecting it to be free, because it isn't.

Sun Country's Contract of Carriage spells out the personal item as getting no fee 'ordinarily,' language it does not use for the carry-on bag. That's a deliberate distinction in an unbundled, no-frills fare structure where seats, carry-ons, and checked bags are all priced as optional add-ons rather than included in the base fare. In practice, that means every Sun Country passenger on every fare pays for a full-size carry-on bag.

The personal item has to fit under the seat in front of you and stay within 17 x 13 x 9 inches. There's no published weight limit for it, unlike the carry-on's 35 pound cap. If you want to fly Sun Country without paying a bag fee at all, packing everything into a 17 x 13 x 9 inch personal item is the only way to do it, which is a tighter box than it sounds like but workable for a short trip with a soft-sided bag that flexes into the shape of the space under the seat.

Sun Country's Contract of Carriage explicitly punts on the dollar amount, pointing readers to its website's bags and optional services page for the current fee rather than stating a number in the contract itself. That page is a fully dynamic, client-rendered booking tool, and the fee it shows depends on your route, how far in advance you buy it, and whether you buy it online or at the airport, which is exactly why Sun Country doesn't lock a single number into its published Contract of Carriage.

Third-party sites will quote you a specific dollar figure for Sun Country bag fees, but treat those as rough estimates rather than fact, since the airline's own contract deliberately avoids stating one. The only way to get the real number for your trip is to price it during booking on Sun Country's own site or app, where it's tied to your specific flight.

Checked bags follow the more familiar 50 pound and 62 linear inch (length plus width plus height) standard before an excess baggage charge kicks in. Sun Country won't accept anything heavier than 100 pounds or larger than 80 linear inches under any circumstances, standard or excess fee included.

The free allowance built into most fares before any per-bag pricing applies is up to two checked bags plus the one carry-on and one personal item, per Sun Country's baggage rule. Beyond that, additional bags are priced individually, again through the same dynamic fee page rather than a flat published rate.

If a single checked bag exceeds 62 linear inches or 50 pounds, the excess baggage charge under Rule 225 applies on top of whatever the standard checked bag fee turns out to be at booking. As with the base checked bag fee, Sun Country doesn't lock a specific dollar figure for that excess charge into its Contract of Carriage, so the same booking-page check applies here too.

This is the tradeoff behind Sun Country's low base fares. American, Delta, and United all include a full-size carry-on and personal item free on every fare, including their cheapest Basic Economy tickets, and then charge only for checked bags. Sun Country flips that: the base fare is cheaper upfront, but a full-size carry-on is priced separately regardless of how you booked, which can close or even erase the fare gap once you add a bag.

The way to compare fairly is to price your actual trip both ways, base fare plus whatever bags you'd realistically bring, rather than comparing base fares alone. A traveler flying with just a personal item comes out ahead on Sun Country's lower base price. A traveler who needs a full carry-on and a checked bag should run the total cost on both before assuming the cheaper-looking fare wins.

Since the personal item is the only guaranteed-free option, the practical move on Sun Country is to pack into a 17 x 13 x 9 inch bag if you want to skip bag fees entirely, the same strategy that works on Spirit, Frontier, and Allegiant, all of which run similar unbundled fare structures. If you do need the full 24 x 16 x 11 inch carry-on, buying it during booking is consistently cheaper across nearly every airline that charges for carry-ons than adding it later or paying at the gate, so add it at checkout rather than waiting.

Under federal rules, airlines are required to prominently disclose baggage fees, including carry-on fees, upfront during booking rather than surfacing them only after you've paid for the ticket. That disclosure requirement is exactly why Sun Country's booking flow will show you the real, current fee for your specific flight even though the Contract of Carriage itself won't. Check it at the point of booking rather than relying on any article, including this one, for the exact dollar amount.