FEES

Should hotels advertise “all-in” prices, too?

If you recall last month’s dust-up about airfare pricing, you’ll know that airlines feel singled out by the federal government, which is now requiring them to advertise fares that include all mandatory taxes and fees.

Here are a few details about that dispute. Never mind that other federally-regulated industries have the same pricing requirements, including anyone buying gas, cigarettes or alcohol. Airlines wanted to see other examples in travel, dammit.

And so did readers.
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132 comments

When revenue-hungry airlines play “chicken” with passengers

Editor’s Note: Today we join with thousands of other websites to protest two dangerous bills that are flying through Congress and threaten your freedom of expression online. Please do your part to stop censorship by contacting your elected representative.

Here’s a decision most of us will have to make the next time we fly: Should you splurge for a “premium” seat in economy class — an aisle or a window seat — or leave it to chance, and possibly end up in a middle seat?

It happened to Fred Thompson on a recent Delta Air Lines flight from New York to Detroit. “The Delta website would not let me choose a seat when I booked the ticket four weeks early,” he says. “The day before my flight, I still could not pick a seat. All the economy seats were taken and the only available seats were fee-based with prices ranging from $9 to $29.”
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91 comments

What the #$&! is going on with airline baggage fees?

Check this out: The latest luggage fee numbers, as reported by the federal government, show that the major airlines are collecting less for our checked suitcases. They haven’t returned to the early 2007 levels, which were still pretty reasonable, but well off the highs reached in the second and third quarter of 2010.

What’s going on?
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35 comments

Ridiculous or not? Airlines charge fees to use my credit card

When it comes to airline fees, you’ve probably stopped asking yourself, “What’s will they think of next?”

That’s because you thought they’d stop with charging for the first checked bag. But they didn’t. You thought paying for lunch on a six-hour flight was where they’d draw the line. Nope. How about seat reservations — surely they’d be included in the ticket price? Sorry.

So if I told you that you’d soon have to pay for the privilege of paying, that probably wouldn’t sound like a joke. But when I heard from Will Storr, a fellow journalist who lives in England and who had booked flights from Florence, Italy, to London on British Airways, I thought there was some kind of mistake.
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142 comments