This peak travel fee is a fee that most people don’t even know they are paying. It is really hidden and included right in the airfare, like the transportation excise tax. But, travelers will notice it when prices vary by $30 to $60 from day to day. It could be the peak travel fee.
Most of the legacy airlines are jumping on the peak travel bandwagon. Most of the low cost carriers like Southwest, JetBlue and AirTran are not. That will make the differences in price even greater, but the legacy carriers are counting on low capacity to force many passengers into their planes.
According to Tom Parsons, chief executive officer of Bestfares.com, and Graeme Wallace of FareCompare.com.
U.S. airlines are seeking to bolster earnings after posting their first collective quarterly profit in 2 ½ years, helped by a rebound in business travel, checked-bag fees and surcharges. Passengers often see surcharges as part of the fare and may not know why the ticket is priced higher, said Wallace.
“It’s not transparent,” said Wallace, chief technology officer at Dallas-based FareCompare.com. “If you’re looking at travel on a particular day, you have no idea why it’s $400 on that day. You don’t know it’s $340 the day before or $350 the day after.”
I visited aa.com, united.com and delta.com and didn’t find any wildly fluctuating airfares between Boston and Chicago or Boston and DC-Reagen. Perhaps the peak travel fees are being applied strategically rather than across the board. Plus, for the Labor Day crowd, most of the cheap seats are already history.
Peak travel days coming up are;
September 2 and 3, November 19 through 29, and December 17 to 31.
Remember, if passengers can avoid those days for travel on many routes across the country they may save themselves up to $120.
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
