That's right lady, go ahead and type in our checked baggage fees and holiday surcharges; we now know to avoid your airline in future travels. You see, three airlines have become the grinches of the holiday travel season. Not only are they throwing down the baggage fees, but they're already upping recently-announced peak travel surcharges, some of which continue through to 2010.

The offending airlines are: United, Delta and US Airways. Might as well just throw all your spare change and travel coffee money at them now, with all the little additional nicks they're taking at your wallet... ]]> JetSetCD 2009-11-23T13:59:00-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/11/19/6544/5771

Remember all those airline fees that were pouring in a few months ago related to this season’s holiday travel? Well the airlines must have really enjoyed what they were seeing, as they are now looking to tack in some additional charges for days well into 2010. Delta, United, and American Airlines are busy adding these presents to our tickets anytime they think travel will be busier than usual.

The website BestFares.com is reporting that Delta and United have added surcharges to as many as 40 days between now and next May. The fees can be as much as $30 each way depending on distance, time, and other factors that appeal to the airlines. Our favorite airline fee has to be the $50 one-way charge that has now been added to some flights on February 8. In case you don’t have the NFL calendar kicking around, that’s the day after the Super Bowl. Not like we could afford tickets anyway, but we can still be angry about it. ]]> kjb 2009-11-19T09:44:30-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/11/19/8234/5926

Air Canada has been busy spending lots of cash on stuff like iPhone Apps, in-flight WiFi, and snazzy software for your Blackberry. This stuff all costs money, and like all other airlines, the money probably isn’t just pouring in up in Canada. So the country’s flagship carrier is opening up the fee and charge toolbox in hopes of finding a good way to boost revenue.

The airline will begin to charge for seats with more room to stretch out your legs. That means scoring an exit row or bulkhead seat with the online seat selector has become a thing of the past. It will set you back at least $14 each way to reserve one of those seats. We do love getting an exit seat, but it’s kind of sad that we are willing to pay for an upgrade—after all, it’s still coach. ]]> kjb 2009-11-19T08:39:29-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/11/3/21248/3860

Somehow you actually got out of your family obligations this holiday season; however, you still need to get rid of the kiddies before you’re truly free to head out to Caribbean. That’s why we did a little homework for you. Unfortunately, you have to still do the hard part and ask Grandma if she’d mind watching the kids during their entire Christmas break. Even if you get the go ahead from the relatives, be prepared to pony up some cash, because sending the kids on a solo mission isn’t cheap.

· Delta
Delta has a lot of rules when it comes to sending little Timmy out on his own for the first time. Kids must be between 5 and 14 years old, but if they are younger than 7 they can only fly on nonstop flights—otherwise they’d definitely miss their connections. If your kid is between fifteen and seventeen, and you want to embarrass them, Delta will kindly look after them too. There’s a bunch of other rules and regulations here. Bottom line, it’s going to cost you $100 each way to get your kid out of your hair. However, they’ll only charge you one fee if you have one or more kids from the same immediate family traveling—Octomom is already on the line.

There's plenty more fees and rules after the jump. ]]> kjb 2009-11-04T14:23:29-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/10/23/161149/25

We're beginning to suspect that United has a full time brainstormer working on ways to monetize people's luggage issues. Hot on the heels of their $249 "free" baggage offer, the airline is offering door-to-door overnight shipping of anything passengers want sent ahead. The only caveat is that the service costs $149 per flight for trips less than 1,000 miles and $179 for flights that go over that.

The Wall Street Journal, discussing the new scheme, refers to United as a "pioneer" in imposing baggage fees. We sometimes muse similarly, though instead of "pioneer" we use what our therapist calls "anger words." Here's what the WSJ exactly said:]]> Omri 2009-10-23T16:40:08-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/10/15/132514/16

Ryanair is in a very public, very heated, very crazy delicious feud with the BBC. The low cost carrier has taken exception to a BBC Panorama expose unpacking the airline's complex nickle and dime strategy for extracting airline fees. In response, Ryanair's the-customer-is-always-wrong CEO Michael O'Leary has blasted the program and unveiled a 1.1 million seat giveaway.

We were surprised Ryanair reacted so negatively to a discussion of their opaque fees. Usually they're so much more confident. Just a few weeks ago they were blustering about how their customers were free to explore other options if they had problems with the airline.

This is a company that's made a business model of brazenly abusing passengers, the implicit justification being that any alienated customers could always be replaced by other bargain seekers. "You'll take our abuse because you value your wallet more than your self-esteem" is practically the company's sneering motto.]]> Omri 2009-10-15T14:08:37-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/10/15/83659/370

First it was checked baggage fees, and then it was peak holiday travel fees, and now it's airlines making no money from such fees. Even though carriers took in a total of over 1 billion dollars in 2008 for baggage fees, it's not helping things out much as the airlines who lost the most money last quarter were those with most fees.

Topping the list of the losers is United with a 21% drop. They changed their checked bag fee policies a few times last year, finally ending with $15 for your first checked bag and $25 for your second. Other losers include Continental and Delta and American, who each dropped between 18.8 and 15% of revenue and have the same baggage fee structure as United. Reasons for the drop in revenue run the gamut of the usual airline excuses, but our guess is that higher fees are driving travelers to book away from these airlines and onto ones with fewer or lower fees. For instance, flying Jetblue versus United to United's home base of Chicago saves you a first checked bag fee, not to mention some dough with the original ticket price.

And here there airlines all thought baggage fees were so great that they'd be able to get away with raising them every few months.

Related Stories:
· Airlines that charge fees lost more money than airlines that didn't [BoingBoing]
· Airlines Rake In Over A Billion Dollars In Baggage Fees [Jaunted]
· Airline Fees coverage [Jaunted]

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