The price of an airline ticket used to include the option to check a bag but that's necessarily the case these days and travellers are getting creative to avoid the extra costs.

Anna Madrid is flying to Phoenix and has packed everything in her carry-ons to avoid paying the $25 baggage fee.

She isn’t alone as more and more people are looking for ways to save a buck now that almost every major airline flying between Canada and the U.S. now charges $25 for your first checked bag.

Like Madrid, passengers are stuffing more items than ever into their carry-ons and that luggage overload can mean more hassle on the plane and at the gate.

"Typically once you get to the gate they don't have room and there's that panic, at least they have foresight now, they didn’t used to, to say, hey if you’re carrying on we'll check it for free. So ultimately they're gonna check it for free once you get to the gate, why wouldn't they just not cause the problems and the delays and the panic and everything and not charge here? “ said Madrid.

CTV Calgary Consumer Specialist Lea Williams-Doherty took a look at the Air Canada and WestJet policies for checked baggage.

Lea found out that Air Canada charges a $25 first bag fee on its flights going to the States and asked whether the airline might expand that to include domestic flights as well.

Air Canada’s spokesperson told Lea that the airline does not plan to charge for the first checked bag on domestic flights but then qualified that by saying,  "Air Canada monitors industry developments very closely and will align policies to remain competitive with other airlines."

WestJet does not charge for a first bag on domestic or flights to the United States and says it has no plans to change that policy.

Even so, Westjet's full flights still suffer from the carry-on crunch.

“We are flying at very high load capacity so if you're among the last 20 or 30 guests to board the plane, you may have trouble finding space in the overhead bin for your carry-on and that's frustrating,” said Robert Palmer from WestJet.

Lea also checked to see where the "fee for first checked bag policy” came from.

American Airlines introduced the policy in 2008 to offset the high price of fuel at the time and many other carriers jumped on board.

Lea says that even though fuel costs have dropped, the checked bag fee remains because it's a big money maker for the airlines.

(With files from Lea Williams-Doherty)