As I wrote earlier, these have been a nightmarish few days for American Airlines.

But it looks like that’s ending, along with the airline’s $100 3^rd checked-bag fee for military personnel (and thanks to the Star-Telegram for the heads up).

The story out in the blogosphere looked bad: the carrier was charging servicemen and women for a third-checked bag. These folks DID get reimbursed by their country of course, but the damage was done.

American’s response: we’ll waive that fee. And now, United has just emailed us that they are now matching American, and dropping their 3^rd checked-bag fee for the military, as well.

Gary Kelly, Southwest Airlines CEO, weighed in with a statement on the Southwest Blog, noting that they changed their policy early this year to waive all baggage related fees for active duty military personnel (they don’t have a 1st or 2nd checked bag fee).

We also contacted Northwest, Delta and US Airways, but those airlines have not yet responded. We did hear from a Continental spokeswoman who told us simply, “This is a pricing matter - we can’t discuss future plans.”

We’ll update if we hear anything further.