airline fees

Airlines continue to find new, creative ways to charge passengers extra -- the most irritating of which are the new charges for checked bags. United and US Air started the trend by charging $25 one-way for a second checked bag, then most of the other big carriers followed suit.
So we're flying Southwest this summer -- two FREE checked bags.

airline fees...yeah had an experienced with that by changing the date time and even cancellation of airline ticket...had this charges

Hotels are just as bad. Everyone knows that you'll pay about $5 for a small bottled water if you use the hotel room mini bar. But they will also charge to use the glass. The Paris hotel wanted to charge $4 per glass, per night in our room. That is my all-time "Are You Serious" shocker. We would have been paying $20 a night to drink wine in our room. (There were a few us, in a couple of rooms).

You can't take your own drinks aboard flights (unless you buy at a concession stand after the security screening, but you can take along a picnic basket worth of food still. American still gives you a free soft drink/juice on your flight, but a sandwich is $5-6 (if offered at all), chips are $5 and a cookie is $4. US Airways at least gives you a micro-bag of pretzels. :rolleyes:

Flying and traveling in general are getting very expensive lately. One way to save is to fly from smaller airports, where the airport fees are considerably lower compared to major airports.

Paying a fee is the last thing I worry about related to checking bags. 100% of the times I've flown through Philly on US Scare w/ checked bags, they have not made my connection. That's not 'sometimes' or 'most of the time,' that's 100% of the time, I've arrived sans luggage. I also had a bag dissapear in San Francisco earlier this year. I spent many hours over 4 days with incredibly rude and abrasive outsourced United call center agents over it. When they finally found it, they admitted that it had sat on the tarmac in the sun at SFO for 4 days before anyone noticed it!!

That being said, there are still RIGHT ways to travel. On a 3 hour Continental flight the other day, they served us free turkey sandwiches, chips, and a candy bar. Free! And as for the hotel water comment below, several Hiltons that I've stayed in have had multiple bottles of high-end bottled water (Evian, Voss) in my room for free. So, you can still travel right if you avoid the nickel-and-dimers.

Travelling home from Pto. Escondido, Mexico with 2 surfboards in a padded board bag. Paid something like $75 oversized baggage fee. Got home, found tire tracks across the middle of the bag, both boards snapped in half. Their response? Not our fault, surfboards are fragile items!

Flying and traveling in general are getting very expensive lately. One way to save is to fly from smaller airports, where the airport fees are considerably lower compared to major airports.
I've always found the opposite to be true. Usually it was cheaper to fly out of Logan (Boston) than the smaller airports when I lived back East and nowadays flying out of DFW is almost always cheaper than out of Love Field.

Hotels are just as bad. Everyone knows that you'll pay about $5 for a small bottled water if you use the hotel room mini bar. But they will also charge to use the glass. The Paris hotel wanted to charge $4 per glass, per night in our room. That is my all-time "Are You Serious" shocker. We would have been paying $20 a night to drink wine in our room. (There were a few us, in a couple of rooms).

Wow. I knew about the minibar, of course, and frequently refuse the key so they have no way to falsely bill me for items taken from it. Never heard of the glass surcharge, though. Wonder if they'd hit you with it if you carefully washed and dried them and set them in their original places.

There are no bounds to the imagination when it comes to these fees, are there?

Half the fun of fees is coming up with creative solutions to beat them I find. The other half of the fun is arguing with the money-grabbing overlord that put them in place to start with. (I use the word fun very loosely for the second time.)

This is just the beginning. Air travel will get much more expensive in the near future.

This is just the beginning. Air travel will get much more expensive in the near future.
So true. $2 for a Coke and $7 for a blanket and pillow. If oil prices ease back and remain relatively "low," the airlines will most likely follow suit after a quarter or two or earnings.

Until oil prices go down, I think there are a few ways to reduce costs of flying. I think from now on I will try to pack light, and fit everything into a carry-on bag so I do not have to pay the booking fees. Also, most airlines should allow you to take your own food and beverages on board with you, I almost always do now when I travel. Also it is easy to bring a light blanket on board with you. Either pack it in the carry-on or put it in a shopping bag, it should be fine. I have never had to pay for a non-alcoholic beverage when I've flown. What airline are you using Dingobiscuit?

For more information I use www.CompareAirlineFees.com and their Airline Fee Comparison Tool to compare airlinefees & flight prices to find the 'true' best ticket price.

Until oil prices go down, I think there are a few ways to reduce costs of flying. I think from now on I will try to pack light, and fit everything into a carry-on bag so I do not have to pay the booking fees. Also, most airlines should allow you to take your own food and beverages on board with you, I almost always do now when I travel. Also it is easy to bring a light blanket on board with you. Either pack it in the carry-on or put it in a shopping bag, it should be fine. I have never had to pay for a non-alcoholic beverage when I've flown. What airline are you using Dingobiscuit?
We just flew Mexicana Airlines for the first time when we recently went to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Friendly staff, meals and drinks both ways at no additional cost and free headphones, even (although my headphone jack was broken :( ).

Customs was frighteningly weak both ways. I could have smuggled a bunch of scary OTC medicine and sold it via my signature here!

Customs was frighteningly weak both ways. I could have smuggled a bunch of scary OTC medicine and sold it via my signature here!

I guess that is better than being randomly chosen for bag check when I went away last week! Or maybe that isn't better, what is the point of all these extra measures of security if customs is going to be lax?

I prefer to take economy flights,much cheaper.

The checked bag fees didn't seem like a big deal at first, but after having taken two trips recently I started to notice the irritations more. For one you have to be prepared to pay with a credit card when checking a bag (15 for American Airlines), and then be prepared for everyone else to spend 20 minutes trying smash and cram every piece of carry-on luggage into the overhead bins. The flight attendants have to play a Tetris style game with the overhead bins every single flight it seems.

The airlines refer to this as unbundling their pricing. You pay for every little thing separately. I wouldn't mind paying a little extra to not have to be digging for cash for my sandwich, finding credit cards for my bags. But I don't see the trend ever reversing unfortunately.

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Thanks, NICELAMBS, I used your links and not only did I save 25% on my upcoming flight to London, but also found someone to take along.

Was it an "amtur oder xy woman", by any chance, Ding?

Ah, I see my encryption failed to pull the wool over your eyes! Drat!

Now we need to safely make it past Customs!

Best wishes...

Last time I booked a flight online, I had to double check for extra charges and when I got through it my final bill went down 30%.

What really irritate me is that they said "Bag charges are due to the weight and increase oil prices". Now oil is more than 50% down in price and they still charge the so many fees. It is time for more regulations for the airline industry.

Don't get me started on extra charges, the majority of the budget airlines in the UK now advertise flights for extreamly cheap (£10 return to europe). The costs start to mount though when you actually book the flight online as it asks you if you would like a seat (goes without saying really but still an extra cost), if you would like a bag (much extra cost) and then on top of that the various taxes and such are added on. This can mean your £10 return ticket actually works out at about £110. I would not mind paying this i just wish they would'nt advertise it, at essentialy, false prices.

A more detailed airline fee chart can be seen at http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/AirfareWatchBlog/tabid/54/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/867/Default.aspx

So true. $2 for a Coke and $7 for a blanket and pillow. If oil prices ease back and remain relatively "low," the airlines will most likely follow suit after a quarter or two or earnings.


7 bucks for a blanket and pillow? aren't those free of charge???

American has already reduced theirs from 130 to 120. I know it isnt much. One carrier, I forget which one, discontinued their baggage fee. Delta added a baggage fee just recently. There are fewer planes flying and the high demand markets are high still. Some destinations have already seen a price decrease even over some holidays (not Christmas) Helicopter Tours in Hawaii (http://paradisecopters.com)