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4 outrageous airline fees and how to avoid them
The airlines don’t want you to read this.
They’d rather you fork one of the new surcharges they’ve dreamed up during the last few weeks. They want you to pay extra for your first checked bag, for drinkable water — even for “free” award tickets.
They don’t want you to know there’s another way. But there is.
Surcharges are not inevitable. À la carte pricing doesn’t have to send the price of your next vacation into the stratosphere. Really, it doesn’t.
Warning: The advice I’m about to give is no way sanctioned by the Air Transport Association, the airline trade group whose members evidently haven’t met a surcharge they don’t like. It is not endorsed by airline apologists masquerading as analysts, experts and pundits — the folks you see on TV foolishly arguing that new fees are essential to the airline industry’s survival. Nor does it reflect the views of many elite frequent fliers, who think it’s about time the “little people” sitting in the back of the plane paid more for their tickets.
No, they would not approve of what I’m saying. Which is all the more reason to say it.
Beverages
US Airways will begin charging for soft drinks on Aug. 1. That includes bottled water. Yes, bottled water. The airline is completely unapologetic about the new charge. “We’ve chosen to be more aggressive than our competitors,” Doug Parker, the airline’s chief executive, told his employees in an internal memo. You can say that again, Doogie.
Read the rest of the article here
They’d rather you fork one of the new surcharges they’ve dreamed up during the last few weeks. They want you to pay extra for your first checked bag, for drinkable water — even for “free” award tickets.
They don’t want you to know there’s another way. But there is.
Surcharges are not inevitable. À la carte pricing doesn’t have to send the price of your next vacation into the stratosphere. Really, it doesn’t.
Warning: The advice I’m about to give is no way sanctioned by the Air Transport Association, the airline trade group whose members evidently haven’t met a surcharge they don’t like. It is not endorsed by airline apologists masquerading as analysts, experts and pundits — the folks you see on TV foolishly arguing that new fees are essential to the airline industry’s survival. Nor does it reflect the views of many elite frequent fliers, who think it’s about time the “little people” sitting in the back of the plane paid more for their tickets.
No, they would not approve of what I’m saying. Which is all the more reason to say it.
Beverages
US Airways will begin charging for soft drinks on Aug. 1. That includes bottled water. Yes, bottled water. The airline is completely unapologetic about the new charge. “We’ve chosen to be more aggressive than our competitors,” Doug Parker, the airline’s chief executive, told his employees in an internal memo. You can say that again, Doogie.
Read the rest of the article here
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