United Airlines secretly raises ticket change fees

by Grant Martin on

We are officially in the era of airline fees. Over the past few weeks, major carriers across the country have been implementing extra fees to check second bags on their aircraft. Now, beginning with United Airlines, they’re starting to charge higher fees to change your ticket.

The way the regular system works is as follows: when you buy a ticket you purchase your seat in a certain fare class, ranging from a full fare in first class to a deeply discounted ticket in coach. Among the tickets in your class of service, most are non-refundable tickets that you basically can’t return after you swipe your card. Most airlines allow you to change that ticket however, with various stipulations. Often times the ticket needs to be in the same fare class and in all circumstances the airlines are going to hit you with a hefty fee. This varies from 50$ upwards based on the airline, class of ticket and elite status that the passenger may have with the airline.

In this instance, United raised their fee from 100$ up to 150$ to make any changes to your ticket. And they didn’t even tell anybody when they did it last Friday night. News is just slowly seeping out now.

Often times, airlines will make these changes to affect the bottom tier of passengers, exempting many of the first class and elite customers. But not in this case. This is a unilateral 50$ increase in fees across the board, so even if you’re super a super special elite passenger you still get screwed. Cool huh?

I wouldn’t doubt if other airlines started increasing their fees to change tickets as well. Perhaps soon they will start charging for padding on our seats and the right to sit down?

Everyone is now charging for extra bags. Get used to it.

by Grant Martin on

If you’ve been following airline industry news over the past few weeks, you’ve probably heard news about many American carriers creating new fees for multiple checked bags. If your favorite hometown airline hasn’t started doing it yet, don’t hold your breath, it’s probably on the way.

These changes are too bad for American passengers, but long overdue, I’m afraid. Airlines have been struggling to cope with staggeringly high oil and operational costs over the last few years, all while maintaining competitive and fair prices. Their competition has cut so deep into the bottom line that carriers are now faced with two options: raise ticket prices or implement extra fees.

What currently drives the majority of the airline ticket market, however, is overwhelming demand for budget tickets — regardless of the carrier, class of service or amenities. Raising the bar on ticket prices thus runs the risk of losing large swaths of passengers with each increase.

So the airlines are forced to nickel and dime their regular passengers with extra fees along the way. This includes several in-flight amenities such as headphones or television that have already been integrated into many routes to extra baggage fees, which are unrolling this week.

Where to after that? It wouldn’t surprise me if airlines soon unilaterally started charging for all beverages, preferred seating, peanuts, wheelchair room or overweight passengers. Anything to keep the bottom line in its current place.

As the prevailing trend over the last few years dictates though, most of these changes won’t have any effect on the the frequent and business travelers. In addition to extra baggage fees being waived, most elite members are allowed an additional bag that they can bring along for free. Loyalty pays off, I suppose.

For now, make sure you keep an extra twenty with you when you’re on the road — if you want an extra shred of comfort, food or alcohol on board you’re going to have to pay for it. But as you’re handing your five dollars over for a dried up tuna sandwich on white bread and six ounces of gin, ask yourself, would you rather pay for your oil with your plane ticket or your in-flight privileges?

I don’t know about you, but I would rather save my money upfront, pack light and starve.

Amtrak to screen passengers’ bags

by Iva Skoch on

It always struck me as odd that airlines put so many resources into screening people’s bags, yet you can walk into any train in America with a bag “full of whatever” and be OK. In fact, unlike with the airlines’ “fly with your bag” policy, you can even walk into a train, leave your bag there and walk out. We won’t get into conspiracy theories here, but the security involved in train travel is probably not where it should be.

Amtrak announced that will start randomly screening passengers’ carry-on bags this week in a new security push that includes officers with automatic weapons and bomb-sniffing dogs patrolling platforms and trains, AP reports.

According to the article, Amtrak is not reacting to any specific threat. They are just taking “the correct steps.” Rail security has been top of mind since the 2004 bombings of commuter trains in Madrid that killed 191 people and the bombings in London, where 52 people were killed in 2005, and in Mumbai, where 200 people were killed in 2006 on commuter trains. Russia also has had several bombings on subway, commuter and long-distance trains.

RFID for Luggage: Coming To An Airport Near You?

by Martha Edwards on

Most people have a story of an airline losing their luggage. For me, it was en route to Thailand, and I was forced to spend a couple of days wearing my travelling companion’s clothing — too bad she’s about half my size. Luckily, I was prepared and brought a toothbrush, deodorant, some soap and most importantly, an clean pair of underwear with me in my carry-on.

A newish technology is being integrated into a number of airports, and is already in operation at Las Vegas’ McCarran International Airport, as well as the Hong Kong International Airport. It’s called RFID — radio frequency identification — and it is embedded into luggage tags.

RFID works much more effectively than the current tracking device, bar codes. And while with bar codes, baggage handlers have to manually search for a bag, RFID allows them to track down the bag’s exact location. So far at McCarran, the technology has 99% accuracy in it’s read rate — the 1% being tags that are unreadable because they’ve slip under the bag handle. It’s relatively cheap too — $0.15 per tag, compared to $1.80 in 1997.

Expect to see this technology at Airports in Paris, Amsterdam, Milan and San Francisco, among others.

10 Things Travel Insurance Won’t Cover

by Martha Edwards on

I’m a bit of a spaz when it comes to travel insurance. Which means, basically, that I’m always covered. Though I don’t do crazy things like bungee jump or swim in the ocean further than my feet can touch, I’m always worried that this is going to be the trip where I randomly fall out of a cab onto a busy street and wind up with a broken clavicle and it’s all down to a suspiciously missing metal piece in the door the size of a hairpin. Call it my mother’s influence. Call it getting older. Call it what it is: Paranoia. But whatever you call it, I aim to be covered, one way or another.

There are lots of people out there, like me, who depend on travel insurance for peace of mind. And it’s great to have that sense of assurance, but don’t be fooled into thinking that travel insurance covers every mishap you might have. Here’s a list of the top 10 things it doesn’t cover:

  1. Your tour cancels on you: Sure, you’re covered in case you have to cancel, but what if they cancel and leave you high and dry? Sorry — you might be out of luck
  2. Acts of War or Protests: A good reason to stick to a destination that’s not too tumultuous.
  3. Pre-existing medical conditions: If you had a medical condition before you left, whether you knew about it or not, and it acts up on the trip, you might not be covered. Get checked out and be upfront about your illnesses.
  4. Baggage Delays of less than 24 hours: Bring your toiletries and a change of clothes in your carry-on because you’ll only get money if your bag’s missing for more than 24 hours.
  5. Death of Pet: You can cancel your trip if Granny dies, but you’re outta luck if Rover heads to doggy heaven
  6. Loss/Damage to keys, documents, etc: Read the fine print to find out what is NOT included in the baggage or personal property claims
  7. Sports Injuries: If you break your leg mountain climbing, you might be footing the bill yourself
  8. Pregnancy and Childbirth: Check the fine print — some aspects of childbearing complications might not be covered.
  9. Psychological Illness: Paying out of your pocket for your trip after you have to cancel because of a nervous breakdown will only make things worse. If you have a history of mental illness, get the facts before you book.
  10. Divorce: If you divorce or separate before your trip, you might end up travelling together anyway — most insurance companies won’t let you cancel without a penalty.

Via Airfare Watchdog