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How To Send The Kids Elsewhere For The Holidays: Airline Fees For Solo Kid Flyers

November 4, 2009 at 2:23 PM | by kjb | 0 Comments

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.

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United Will Personally Valet Your Luggage For $349

October 23, 2009 at 4:40 PM | by Omri | 0 Comments

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:

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Ryanair Throws Huge Hissy Fit In Response To BBC Expose

October 15, 2009 at 2:08 PM | by Omri | 0 Comments

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.

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Baggage Fees Don't Pay For Airlines Who Bleed Money Anyway

October 15, 2009 at 9:04 AM | by JetSetCD | 1 Comment

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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The Airline Holiday Travel Grinch Strikes Again

October 12, 2009 at 9:11 AM | by kjb | 0 Comments

We thought this would happen, and we’re not too thrilled about it: The holiday surcharge that was introduced last month on some airlines has slowly crept into new dates as well. At first it was just Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day; however, now it seems like every major holiday except for Flag Day is associated with a $10 each way fee.

According to fare tracking website FareCompare, some airlines have now added additional dates in which these holiday fees apply. November 30; December 19, 26, and 27; March 14, 20, 21, and 28; April 11; and May 28 all now may increase your airfare cost by about $20 round trip when the surcharges are tacked on.

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Think Tank Finds Solution To Flight Delays: New Fees On Passengers

October 8, 2009 at 4:33 PM | by Omri | 0 Comments

Researchers over at the top-ranked Brookings Institution have taken a look at the airline industry and at airport congestion, and they'd like you to know that they're very concerned. They note that airline delays have increased dramatically over the last decade, until now more than one in ten planes is over two hours late. Very true and very concerning, and thank you for bringing that to our attention, though it's hardly news.

Their solution, which is to raise fees in order to discourage travelers from flying during peak congestion times, seems to us much less smart:

The researchers said much of the problem is due to heavy concentrations of short trips between big cities, but they also cited an "ill-equipped" air traffic control system and other factors. They suggested increasing high-speed rail service to offer travelers alternatives to short flights. They also recommended letting busy airports charge fees on rush-hour flights to make airlines spread trips more evenly through the day.

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ANA Politely Requests You Pee Somewhere That's Not On Their Airplane

October 7, 2009 at 1:03 PM | by Omri | 2 Comments

Among the many, many problems that arise out of Ryanair's ongoing success—they're up another 17% by the way—is that people start to think like Ryanair executives. Japanese airline ANA, perhaps inspired by the "we'll charge you for the bathroom" shenanigans of Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary, has taken to trying to regulate the urination of its passengers by urging them to pee before they board. This can't be for real, right?

Sounds like it is, though:

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United's New $249 Checked Baggage Fee Equals Instant Loyalty

October 6, 2009 at 2:04 PM | by Omri | 0 Comments

United Airlines is launching a new program that allows passengers to buy their way into Premier Baggage, essentially offering customers the opportunity to pay the airline's exorbitant baggage fees in one lump sum. Instead of United's unreasonable per flight fees, customers now have the option of paying $249 for a year-long fee waiver on their first and second checked bags, plus the bags of up to 8 companions traveling on their confirmation code.

We honestly can't make sense of this move. Anyone who flies United regularly enough to make this worthwhile already gets Premier from their miles. For this to make sense, you'd have to fly more than 15 times a year and check a bag every time. Unless you're just hop-scotching from LA to Vegas—in which case why are you flying United and why are you checking a bag—that easily gets you to 25,000 miles.

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Continental Has Joined The Holiday Fee Club Too

October 5, 2009 at 9:07 AM | by kjb | 0 Comments

Remember last week when the airlines wanted to punish us for wanting to travel home for the holidays? Well, one of the few fee holdouts has caved and is planning to join the holiday fee club. Continental Airlines announced that they too would be adding a $10 surcharge for flying on the Sunday after Thanksgiving as well as January 2 and 3.

So far the holiday fees are just hanging around Turkey Day and New Year’s Day; however, we wouldn’t be surprised if they slowly start to creep into the days leading up to Christmas as well. When the airlines start to cut into our Christmas present spending budget, we’ll be sure to let you know.

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Ryanair Kills Airport Check-In Desks, Forces All Customers To Pay To Check In Online

October 1, 2009 at 2:11 PM | by Omri | 1 Comment

Ryanair has finally taken the plunge and formally scrapped their airport check-in desks. This move was largely symbolic since the airline had already banned airport check-ins for tickets purchased after May. And yet, in what will come as a surprise to no one, they're still managing to alienate watchdog groups, anger customers, and come off as general asses.

The watchdog concerns have their roots in Ryanair's older policy of charging passengers for online check-in, a penalty that the airline inexplicably levies on people who make things more efficient and cost effective. Up until now travelers could still avoid the £5-£10 fee by checking in at the airport. Now they can't and that has some people upset.

But that's not our concern. Our concern is this guy:

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This Year's Holiday Season To Be Hampered By Airline Grinch Fees

September 28, 2009 at 8:38 AM | by kjb | 0 Comments

You may have already noticed that the Christmas decorations have arrived at your local discount store, but like it or not, the major airlines also have a little decorating already planned for the holiday season. Last week, several domestic airlines decided to tack on an additional surcharge for travel during the peak travel season around Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. American Airlines started this fee earlier in the week, and by the time we were ready for the weekend, United, Delta, and US Airways had joined the party.

According to the fare tracking website FareCompare, this new miscellaneous $10 fee applies for November 29, January 2, and January 3. So far it appears that Santa and his reindeer are safe, as nothing has been announced for travel immediately around Christmas. However, we’ll let you know if you’ll need to leave an extra cookie for him just in case.

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British Airways Introduces Shiny New Fee For Selecting Your Seat

September 25, 2009 at 1:37 PM | by Omri | 0 Comments

New fees are pretty much inevitable. It's obnoxious and even six months ago it might have drawn howls of criticism, but now everyone seems to be charging extra for choosing emergency exit seats and so the next step has come: charging to select your seat at all. Congratulations airline companies, your nickle-and-dime opaque fees have finally crossed the line from outrageous to embittering. The LA Times has the deal:

We’ve seen airlines add extra charges to reserve popular exit-row seats and aisle seats. But are you ready for this one? Starting Ocober. 7, British Airways plans to charge you just to select a seat. That’s right: $30 to $90 for the right to choose a seat any time up to 24 hours before flying. After that time, you get a free pick of what’s left.

You're exempt if you're in first class or have a particularly high status with the airline, but everyone else is on the hook. It's $30 for coach and $90 for business, presumably on the assumption that there aren't really bad seats in business, so if you want to choose your seat you must really want to choose your seat.

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