Just as we suspected, the $15 first checked bag fee epidemic is spreading like a bad case of the flu. After United’s announcement yesterday, US Airways followed suit and said it will also implement the first checked bag fee starting July 9.

But US Airways was not content to be just a mere fee follower. Oh no. It stepped forward to become the first major U.S. carrier to begin charging for non-alcoholic beverages in economy cabins on domestic flights, as reported in this story from the Baltimore Sun. Come August, should you need to wet your whistle at 33,000 feet, it’ll cost you $2. And that’s not the only fee.

Others include increases in the fees for alcoholic drinks ($7), frequent flier award bookings ($50, wow!!) and phone bookings ($25-$35).

US Airways Beverage Fees

US Airways Baggage Fees

It was only a matter of time. United announced to passengers this morning that it will begin charging $15 for the first checked bag (each way).

The new fee will apply to economy tickets purchased on or after June 13 (i.e. tomorrow) for travel on or after Aug. 18. The $25 fee for a second checked bag announced earlier this year will remain in effect.

Passengers traveling with Global Services, Mileage Plus 1K, Premier Executive, Premier Associate levels or Star Alliance Gold or Silver levels will be exempt from the fee, as will active duty military personnel.

Details at United Baggage.

We’d be shocked if other major U.S. carriers didn’t follow suit. Time to start packing lighter - and fine-tuning your strategy for procuring overhead bin space. In fact, that brings up an important question that I’ll have to investigate: if you carry your luggage onto the plane, overhead bin space runs out and it has to be checked, do you still have to pay the fee? Stay tuned…

Could air travel be going the way of a Weight Watchers weigh-in? Stick skinnies paying less than those of us with, uh, more prominent posteriors? Airlines are said to be mulling the idea, according to this Bloomberg story.

While sending passengers to the scales at check-in is a solution fraught with so many potential problems that we won’t even go into them here (the most important of which, of course, would be real celebrity weights getting leaked to the tabloids), it seems airlines are looking at ever-more creative ways to cut costs by any means possible. Japan Airlines, for example, has started using lighter dishes in its first and business class cabins. Southwest Airlines is gobbling less fuel by flying slower, and Singapore Airlines is talking about cutting excess water (like the ice used to cool drinks) to drop weight.

What do you think? Would you be willing to hop on a scale at the airport and pay per pound? How would human weigh-ins change air travel?

In a world where it seems airlines keep succeeding at charging us for stuff we were already getting for free, it borders on refreshing to see an airline charging for an entirely new service.

Today, JetBlue announced that it will begin offering three first-run films on each flight over two hours in length for $5 a pop. Scheduled to change each month, the movies shown will come from six partner studios (Fox, Disney, NBC Universal, Paramount, Sony and Warner Bros).

Good thing I just used a nice chunk of my American Airlines miles earlier this year to fly to St. Maarten (at 30,000 miles for the roundtrip from California, it was a great deal). As I learned today from the Airline Biz blog, AAdvantage members will begin having to pay a $5 processing fee when they book award tickets online (there’s already a $20 fee for booking over the phone) starting June 21.

This fall, in addition to the new processing fee, the airline will also raise the number of miles required for booking award tickets, seats in premium cabins and one-way upgrades. The changes will apply to tickets purchased on or after October 1, 2008, so you’ve still got time to book at the current limits.