Let’s face it. As an industry, airlines have never made money since the Wright Brothers. Because of this mismanagement, they’ve decided to try lining their coffers by coming up with a slew of obnoxious extra charges. We’re not so steamed about paying to see TV, or using the Internet aloft, or even paying for something to eat or drink. After all, planes are not flying restaurants or movie theaters, and why should we all pay for a movie that only some of us watch? And we’re not even peeved by those escalating excess baggage charges, which can sometimes cost more than your fare, although some airlines (especially international ones) clearly overdo it. But passengers overdo it, too, and an airline ticket should not entitle you to move your entire household by air. Let those who over pack pay for the privilege. However, the following fees seem nothing more than new profit centers for the airlines, and whatever additional costs these services could possibly impose on the airlines are clearly lower than what passengers pay.
1. Making a reservation on the phone or in person
Fee: $5-$25
Can it possibly cost them that much for a simple ten minute call? Surely they don’t pay their reservationists that much. United levies $15 for the privilege of speaking to a human. American, JetBlue, and Southwest $10 (for internet only fares in Southwest’s case, but they do make exceptions we were told). Northwest and Virgin America charge just $5.
2. Re-banking frequent flyer miles
Fee: $50-100
If you cash in your miles and decide not to use your ticket, you’ll be hit with a fee to place the miles back into your account. Why? What cost exactly is involved here on the airlines’ part? These tickets are issued electronically, so what’s the big deal?
3. Cashing in frequent flyer miles without sufficient advance notice
Fee: $0-100
Who says frequent flyer tickets are free? Some airlines will let you book a frequent flyer seat even up to the day of travel with no fee. These include Airtran, JetBlue, Northwest and Southwest. But others (Continental, Delta, and United) charge $75 if you book without enough notice (defined as 3 days on Continental but an unreasonable 22 days on Delta); and American charges an insane $100 if you book 6 days or fewer before departure.
4. Bringing a pet onboard in the cabin
Fee: $50-100 (each way)
These fees have skyrocketed lately. Muffy and Buffy won’t be ringing the call button for a glass of milk, and they won’t be carrying bags or imposing on the airline’s bottom line in any way; but their fare might end up costing more than yours. Most airlines now charge $80 each way. On United you’ll pay $85 until May 5, but $100 after that and on JetBlue “just” $50.
5. Checking luggage
Fee: $3-25 (each way)
We’re talking here just about checking even one bag, even if they’re not oversized or overweight (that’s a whole other story). Most major airlnes now charge $25 for a second checked bag, and we wouldn't be surprised if next they start charging for every bag. Spirit Airlines charges $5 for each of the first two bags if paid for online, $10 each otherwise. The third bag costs a whopping $100, more if it’s oversized or overweight. Allegiant. charges $3 for the first, $5 for the second. Air Canada gives you a discount for not checking baggage, which is a sneaky way of charging you if you do.
It’s not like the airlines are giving us bigger overhead bins, so that’s the big idea here? Don’t be surprised if you see other airlines following suit.
6. Getting a refund when a fare goes down
Fee: $25 to $200 or more.
If you bought a TV from Costco or BestBuy and they lowered the price the following week, chances are you could get a refund no questions asked. Even Apple gave credits when they dropped the price of their iPhone soon after launching it. But most airlines either will refund nothing (British Airways and most other international carriers) or they’ll charge an “administrative fee” of up to $100 on a domestic ticket, and even more on an international one. What justifies this? Does it actually cost them $100 to spend a few minutes to rewrite your electronic ticket? I doubt it. Don't be surprised if eventually airlines go with a "you buy it you fly it" policy: if the fare goes down, tough.
7. Flying standby on the same day of travel.
Fee: $0-50.
Time was, if there were empty seats on a later or earlier flight on the same day as your original, the airline would confirm you for free. But now, most airlines charge to take an earlier or later flight on the same day as your original flight if you want a confirmed seat (you can still take your chances on many airlines and standby without a confirmation for free, but that's not the same thing).
Southwest is a different animal altogether: there’s no fee to go standby as such, but you’ll have to pay the “walk up” last minute fare, which could be hundreds more than your original discount fare.
8. Paying for lap children
Fee: $10 to 10% of the adult fare (international flights).
What on earth is the meaning of this? Your kid isn’t taking up a seat, and certainly isn’t partaking of the free food and booze (if any). Is the little tyke responsible for consuming extra jet fuel? On a fare of say, $1200, you’ll be billed $120 or more for the privilege of holding the child in your lap for 10 hours (on a business class fare of, say, $5000 you’ll pay $500). By the way, if there's a fuel surcharge on your flight, your kiddie will pay that too: as much as $90 each way.
9. Getting a seat assignment
Fee: $5-$11 each way
Air Canada, AirTran and Allegiant are some of the carriers that now charge for this “perk”. AirTran charges $5 if you’re on a discounted coach ticket; Allegiant charges $11. AirTran charges $15 if you want to grab an exit row seat and Northwest recently upped the charge from $15 to $20 (but I still think it's worth it).
10. Using the lavatory
Fee: OK, airlines are not installing pay toilets. Yet. But the way things are going….
Read more:
What to do if you're bumped from a flight (and how to avoid it)
Why don't other fare comparison sites include Southwest Airlines (and why you should care)
See our list of airfares from your home town.
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August 17, 2009
I recently had the most awful experience I have ever had with an airline. This situation is so ridiculous I would almost find it humorous if it hadn't happened been me they screwed. Take my advice and never fly with Northwest Airlines!
I booked a multiple destination flight from Columbus to San Antonio, San Antonio to Dallas, and then Dallas back to Columbus through Orbitz. Northwest Airlines issued my ticket. Three days before my flight from San Antonio to Dallas, I decided instead to drive to Dallas early and just catch my flight back to Columbus. I called Orbitz to see if I could get some money back for driving instead of flying one leg of the trip and was told I had to cancel that flight. So I agreed and after the flight was cancelled, I was then told that my flight from Dallas to Columbus had been cancelled as well.
Evidently Northwest loves to collect extra fees for changing tickets. If you purchase a ticket that goes to multiple destinations, you not only can't cancel any portion of the trip, you have to literally show up for every leg of trip or your entire trip is cancelled! Not only was I not allowed to cancel my flight from San Antonio to Dallas, they told me that if I didn't show up for my flight in San Antonio, my flight to Columbus would be cancelled as well. How much would it cost me to drive one leg of the trip instead of flying....a minimum of $200, possibly more!
I can't believe the desperation of Northwest Airlines to try and make an extra buck by hiding fees in their Terms of Agreement! When I called their customer service, they were extremely rude and obnoxious. I was shocked! I would never have believed I would receive this kind of treatment from any business much less a big airline. Now I'm out hundreds of dollars by missing my flight from San Antonio and have to pay a minimum of $200 if I want to re-book my flight from Dallas to Columbus.
People should be aware that Northwest might be cheap to fly, but they are hiding as many fees as they can in the small print of those online agreements you agree to when you click accept. I will never fly Northwest Airlines again and I hope many people will read this and avert disaster. Just pay a little extra and fly Southwest which is an honest company.
The only consolation I have had throughout this awful experience is the knowledge that companies like Northwest, who are dishonest and corrupt, will always go out of business when they resort to this kind of dishonest behavior.
In disgust,
Jonathan
and $550/Round trip check-in charge.
Oh, and for Carry-on pets, they count as one (1) of your 2 carry-on bags!
This was to counter balance the price of fuel when it was at $133/barrel in July to... $54.40 a barrel as of yesterday.
I didn't think anything of it until I did some research after a maintenance delay of my flight caused me to miss my connecting flight. I found many complaints about overweight baggage fees at Air Tran in particular!How could such a thing be proven? BINGO! My bag was delayed, too, and had to be sent to me via Fed. Ex. two days later. Looked on the Fed. Ex. tag attached to my bag when it arrived. There it was---WEIGHT: 35 lbs. PROOF that my bag had not gained any weight after all---there was a problem with the Air Tran baggage scale!
Let's see...a charge of $39 is possible if your bag is over the 50 pound weight limit and $79 if the bag is over 70 pounds. Fortunately, I did check out the fine print on the Air Tran web site before I packed up for my trip. I wanted to make sure that I wasn't even close to the limit. BUT, are others so inclined? OR, do most people get socked by surprise by this additionally imposed fee?
I suspect that the latter is the case. I ponder---how much money would Air Tran be expected to take in with those miscalibrated scales???? No fuzzy math here---they could rake in quite a bit of pocket change this way!
Now...the real question is does Air Tran do this knowingly? Isn't this FRAUD, if so? Tell me that they allow the scales to be miscalibrated like that for days on end...and I'll tell you that I think this is fraudulent!
Let your experiences be known!
I like #10 and you're right, the way things are going, I'm sure they will charge you. What happens if you don't have money to use the toilet ;)
http://www.CompareAirlineFees.com is a great site to compare 25 different extra airline fees and flight prices from top sites at the same time.
http://www.CompareAirlineFees.com is a great site to compare 25 different extra airline fees and flight prices from top sites at the same time.