Another Spike in Airline Fees Coming ?!
If you look at your bills and receipts for just about anything you find a list of charges, fees and taxes. Everything from your credit card statement to the final bill at the resort you are staying at has them.
You thought luggage fees were climbing, but according to CNN we could see a hike in traveling expenses. The price of a plane ticket could see an increase if the federal government decides to charge businesses and individuals in the 2014 budget deal. The focus would be on security fees.
Security fees. Sounds like something we should invest in…right? Well, if airline advocates are correct, then the increase in the security fee to reduce deficits would do nothing to strengthen airport security or speed up those checkpoint lines. It’s all a political matter, but no matter where you stand the fact remains that if this is changed political analysts and the airline industry expect lawmakers to double the security fee.
The average fee runs around $2.50 per leg of a trip. Which means, with the changes we could see a $10 charge for a round trip with no layovers per ticket. CNN explains…
“Say you book a nonstop roundtrip to Chicago. You pay $2.50 on the way out and $2.50 on the way back. If you booked flights with stopovers each way, you’d pay $5 on the way out and $5 for your return home. If Congress goes ahead with a hike in user fees, political analysts and the airline industry expect lawmakers would double the security fee to $5 per trip each way. That would effectively double the fee for nonstop flights, but leave the fee for multi-leg trips unchanged.”
Exactly how that will translate to the various airlines out there remains up for debate. Most of us realists expect all of the new fees to be passed on to the traveler.
It doesn’t seems like a huge deal, but for a family of five now paying a minimum of $10 per ticket in added “security fees” it would add up quickly. Throw in baggage fees, customs user fee, passenger facility charges, passenger ticket tax, flight segment tax, cargo waybill tax, the APHIS passenger fee and your trip just became a bigger dent in your wallet than you may have anticipated.
This is why I urge you to follow through your entire search of flights all the way to the final checkout when doing research on prices for anything (most importantly flights). Sites may advertise $70 airfares, but you might get a hefty dose of fees when you are ready to check out depending on your booking method. Also look into a breakdown of taxes and fees that are charged at the time of booking along with whether or not baggage fees are included!
Take the image above as an example. This is a screenshot of a flight from Chicago to New York booked through Orbitz. Baggage fees are not included and you if you click the icon that breaks down taxes and fees, you will notice a few fees from the third party site. Always check airline’s websites directly to avoid these. Airlines like Southwest won’t be in third party sites like Kayak and they offer a free checked bag which could make a difference especially when you are traveling with a large family or group.