I was so excited when I found cheap airline ticket on discount airline Spirit Airways for our summer trip to Costa Rica. It was less than $1600 for the five of us, including taxes and fees. But as I finalized the booking, more and more fees seemed to appear on my screen. Did you want to reserve seats?  That will be an extra $30 each way per seat. Oh, and did you want to bring carry-onluggage (yes, you read that right)? That will be an extra $33 a person.  Checked luggage was $35 a person. Before I knew it, our fares didn’t seem like so much of a bargain.

Intrigued, I decided to compare six other airlines’ luggage and seat policies to find cheap airline ticket.  Here’s what I found out. While no other airline charged for seats,Virgin America, American Airlines, United Airlines, and Delta all charge $25 per checked luggage and allow one free carry-on bag. Discount carriers Southwest and JetBlue allow a free carry-on and checked luggage.

Since these cheap airline ticket are one way, this means my family of five could expect to pay at least $250 extra on most airlines for each trip we took as a family if we each checked a piece of luggage. That’s the cost of an extra cheap airline ticket for some domestic flights!

Over the years, I’ve become pretty good at packing lightly (although I continue to overpack shoes), but at these prices, we’d need to be really compact.  For added guidance, I consulted the websitewww.onebag.com, which specializes in “the art and science of traveling light.” So here are our tips:

Use a packing list: Spend some time developing a comprehensive packing list for each member of your family that you can use for every trip.  Stick to it religiously and remove any item that is not on the list from your bag before you close it.
Pack one pair of shoes (other than the ones you wear on the plane): Gasp! I know, this one is tough for many of us.
Use your carry-on wisely: For short trips, you should be able to get by without checking luggage, even for a family of four or five. Since each child’s cheap airline ticket allows them their own carry on, make the most of it by using a wheeled full-size carry on bag, and skip the tiny Hello Kitty ones. You can always help them carry it.  
None of the airlines I checked with have an added fee for car seats, strollers, or bassinets.
Check your frequent flyer program: Some frequent flyer programs and airline credit cards allow you one or more pieces of free checked luggage.
Don’t plan for every eventuality: If you’re in California during Oscar season and someone asks you to walk the red carpet, you’ll probably want to go shopping for a new outfit anyway. No need to pack one.
Use Space Bags: These vacuum-sealed bags allow you to fit almost twice as much into your suitcase. But it will also weigh twice as much, so make sure you check your airline’s weight restrictions.

The good news is that we may soon see an end to this costly and confusing system. There is a movement afoot to federally mandate free checked luggage, because so many passengers are opting to avoid fees by bringing carryon luggage that it is creating increasingly large airport security lines. A bill has recently been introduced in Congress to require cheap airline ticket agents to include the actual cost of checked baggage when quoting an airfare and to require air carriers to refund passenger baggage fees if such baggage is lost, delayed, or damaged .

In the meantime, I’ll follow Johnny Cash’s packing advice:

“I ain’t takin’ nothin’ that’ll slow down my travelin’ ”