United, American, Delta hike fares by another $60

While you and I were firing up our grills for Memorial Day weekend, three of the major U.S. airlines—

United

,

American

, and

Delta

—were cooking up a little something of their own: another round of fare hikes.

This time, United was the one to initiate the $10 to $60 spike, with American and Delta scrambling to see which one could be the fastest to keep up. "We are bleeding here," said American spokesperson Ned Raynolds. "It's a survival battle at this point. We are the only major carrier never to have been in bankruptcy and we want to keep it that way."

Judging from your

overwhelming response

to last week's news about American's new checked baggage charge, avoiding more bankruptcies may be an uphill battle for all of the major carriers.

For more on the new airline fees, read our recent coverage of baggage charges assessed by both

Midwest Airlines

and

Frontier

.