Bags Fly Free (and Slow), Prince's Estate to Become a Museum, and More: Today's Travel Briefing

* DOES SOUTHWEST'S "BAGS FLY FREE" POLICY CAUSE DELAYS? (Consumerist). Southwest Airlines makes a big deal out of still not charging passengers for checked bags (well, up to two pieces, anyway), even as the carrier's major competitors have all instituted fees over the course of the last decade.

A recent study published in the journal Management Science, however, found that letting "Bags Fly Free" might be hurting Southwest's on-time performance.

Which begs the question: does the journal Management Science hate us?

Looking at the period of 2007-09, when most airlines began instituting baggage fees, researchers discovered that as passengers began squeezing more stuff into their carry-ons to avoid paying extra, they inadvertently helped streamline the luggage handling process. Accounting for other types of delays—weather, mechanical troubles, and so on—the study estimates that bag fees helped reduce airline delays by an average of two minutes.

Southwest's performance, meanwhile, was slightly slower than the others during that period.

But not so fast: 2007 was nearly 10 years ago. Consumerist took a look at airlines' on-time performance in the intervening years and found that Southwest has usually been in the middle of the pack, delay-wise—though there have definitely been times when it's been in last place, with less than 70% of flights arriving on time (ideally, that number should be at least above 80).

In any case, the airline says it has no plans to change its baggage policy any time soon.

* MYANMAR EARTHQUAKE DAMAGES FAMOUS BAGAN TEMPLES (Bangkok Post). Wednesday's 6.8-magnitude earthquake in Myanmar killed at least one person and damaged about 60 historic Buddhist temples in the ancient city of Bagan, a major archaeological site and one of the country's top tourist destinations.

Built between the 10th and 14th centuries, the pagodas are revered among locals and popular with visitors, who flock to Bagan to watch the sun set over the city's 2,500 temples.

Officials say that of the 60 pagodas affected by the quake, many were severely damaged, including one of the most beloved, Sulamani Temple.

Myanmar has only just recently become more congenial to tourists, following the country's emergence from junta rule in 2011.

A 6.8 magnitude #earthquake rocked #Bagan yesterday afternoon causing damage to some of our ancient temples. We will be investigating the damage over the coming days and hopefully it can be fixed. Photo from @aburmesegirldiary #Myanmar

A photo posted by Bagan Urban Adventures (@baganurbanadventures) on Aug 24, 2016 at 6:58pm PDT