Irony alert – airlines not happy with new airport fee hikes

by Scott Carmichael on

In what I can only describe as “you have to be kidding me”, the Association of European Airlines (AEA) slammed European airports for increasing the fees they charge for the right to use their facilities.

These fees are passed on to passengers in the form of “passenger facility charges”. The airlines claim that increasing these fees is not fair in this current economic climate, and that the fees will only hurt them even more, especially since air travel is at an all time low.

What they really meant to say is that they should be the only ones that are allowed add ridiculous fees to their tickets.

It boggles the mind that the very same airlines that are introducing baggage fees, booking fees, airport check-in fees and other insane charges don’t want to allow airports to recoup some of their investments by raising their prices.

The airport fee hikes are used to improve facilities, add more gates and expand when needed. Unlike the airlines who use these fees as nothing but a new money making scheme. If adding a couple of bucks to my ticket means I get a better airport, I’m 100% for it – I wish the same could be said for the fees the airlines charge – I pay more, but on many carriers I get the same crappy service.

Ryanair: print your tickets at home or not, you pay

by Tom Johansmeyer on

We’re all used to airline fees that punish inconvenient behavior. So, I was beyond impressed when Ryanair found a way to punish the helpful … and punish the helpless. Starting on May 20, passengers will have to pay €10 if they print their own tickets. Essentially, taking matters into your own hands and saving time and expense at the airport will cost you somewhere between $10 and $15.

It sounds like incentive to cause a delay at the counter while you ask thousands of questions while a ticket agent tries to print your pass as quickly as possible. Michael O’Leary & Company thought of this, however, and are charging €40 ($40 to $60, depending on where exchange rates go) for those who try to avoid the €10 fee.

Put simply: the cost of flying Ryanair just went up €10, unless you want it to be up €40.

Fortunately, there is an exception to this rule. If you picked up a €5 fare that includes all fees, you won’t get slapped with any extras.

Online check-in used to be free. Apparently, this “discriminated” against passengers from outside the European Economic Area, as they weren’t able to check in via the web until recently, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald. Key word: weren’t. Now they are. So, the discrimination is gone.

That doesn’t stop Ryanair and its twisted logic, though: the new policy doesn’t discriminate because everybody has to pay!

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U.S. Airlines can’t come up with any new ways to charge their customers

by Scott Carmichael on

Some sad news from Reuters this afternoon (for the airlines at least).

U.S. based airlines may have finally run out of new fees for their passengers.

Indeed, after years of moving things that used to be free into a fee based category, there simply isn’t anything left they can charge us for.

Some airlines, have increased their revenue by over $2 Billion a year, just off things like meals, drinks and baggage charges.

These are all things that used to be included for free with your ticket, but now add as much as 25% to the price of your trip.

Of course, when an airline claims it has run out of ways to screw us, I suspect they are just getting warmed up for the really nasty charges they are preparing. There are plenty of ways they can still make a few bucks off us, until the point where your ticket is nothing more than a piece of paper that entitles you to getting to your destination “sooner or later”.

I’ve written about some of the insane ways airlines come up with “exciting” new products, and quite frankly, I don’t think their creativity will end until the last accountant has left the building.

(Via: RickSeaney.com)

Travel resources start exposing airline fees

by Scott Carmichael on

We’ve covered sneaky airlines fees in the past, and as airlines learn the tricks to adding more and more fees to your trip, some online resources are starting to fight back.

In the past, your ticket would consist of a base price, with some airport taxes, and a 9/11 security fee. Then airlines started whining about rising gas prices, so they added fuel surcharges. Then when gas prices went down again, they conveniently forgot to remove the fuel surcharge.

What we are left with nowadays is ticket prices where up to 65% of the fare is actually for fees, taxes, surcharges and other additional stuff.

The worst part of all these fees is that it is often impossible to get a clear picture what you are paying for. Your e-ticket will usually only show some cryptic codes, and most third party booking sites don’t let you view a price breakdown at all.

Then, to make matters worse, some airlines have started adding fees for things that used to be free – checked baggage, snacks, drinks and even preferred seating.

The tide is turning though – and several online services are helping you battle fee creep. The first of these services is FlyingFees.com, where you can find the add-on fees for most major US airlines, and several foreign carriers.

The site is pretty smart, and even lets you find the cheapest carrier sorted by additional fees. In addition to the basic fees, you’ll also find an overview of virtually every other fee airlines have come up with, including “telephone booking fees”, “ticket change fees” and even the price of a snack or headset once on board. It isn’t the prettiest site, but it is an extremely comprehensive resource.

The next new resource is TripAdvisor – they have been around for several years, but recently added airline price searches. In addition to showing the cheapest airline, they also claim to be the first to show exactly what your flight will cost, but I did not really find any fee information I couldn’t find on any of the other booking resources.

Bottom line is to do your homework before booking your ticket. It makes no sense to save $50 on your ticket, only to be charged $100 for checking a couple of bags.

The next hidden fee – Spirit Airlines to charge a fee for buying a ticket?

by Scott Carmichael on

Nope – this is not an April fools post. Spirit Airlines, one of the cheapest of the US low cost carriers is working behind the scenes to introduce a “passenger usage fee” which is just a snazzy way of describing a fee to cover the costs of you buying a ticket.

That’s right – Spirit Airlines is going to charge you, in order to charge you. The fee is rumored to be $5 or $10, and will apply to any booking made anywhere other than the Spirit Airlines ticket desk at your airport.

The whole thing sounds like a joke gone bad, but it is actually the result of negotiations with the Department of Transportation.

Spirit had initially launched a whole lineup of ridiculous fees last year, including what they called a “natural occurrence interruption fee”; a $2.50 fee to help recover the costs involved with storms and other weather related incidents. The DOT was not amused, and Spirit was handed a $40,000 fine.

Spirit clearly learned their lesson, because this time they are negotiating with the DOT how to implement these new fees. One area of concern is whether Spirit will be forced to include the fee in all their advertising, or whether they can keep it hidden until the last moment, usually when you and I pull out our credit cards. The end result may be that they need to advertise it on their own site, but that third party booking sites won’t be forced to mention it until the last page of your booking process.

In my opinion, the whole fee process is just becoming silly – yes, we consumers are always looking for nice cheap tickets, but we are not entirely stupid. When a $100 ticket becomes $200 after all the fees and taxes, we know we are not getting a good deal. Fingers crossed that the DOT keeps us in mind when they finally approve this new fee racket.

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