Most travelers have grudgingly made peace with the concept of airline taxes and fees. It’s not exactly like we have a choice, anyway. But there are still times where these extra charges can take your breath away — as in when the fees and surcharges are more than the price of the ticket.
This sort of thing especially happens with international travel, and it’s getting worse. Here are a few cases in point: Burlington, Vermont to London in December. The lowest roundtrip advertised price on United Airlines, $262 — the fare total with surcharges and tax $691.
While London is particularly expensive with taxes, this isn’t an isolated incident. American Airlines for example, is advertising $393 fares from Austin, Texas to Paris — the price out the door, $851.
The list goes on. In general, Europe fees and taxes are in the $400-$600 range, per trip. This is before the peak day travel surcharges that airlines are regularly putting on tickets within the U.S, but which haven’t been applied internationally, yet, or first bag or food charges that are no doubt coming.
On the other hand, domestic tickets rarely have fuel surcharges, but the fees just keep on coming. And since most of the domestic fees and taxes are standard without regard to distance, they can quickly add up to the a high percentage of the total trip cost. (In our office, we routinely end up purchasing new tickets for clients when the $150 change fee is more than the price of the ticket.)
While I realize taxes are a necessary evil, they should be included in the advertised fare displays. Fuel surcharges are quite pure and simply, a crock — they should be part of the airfare.
Charging separately for fuel at this point, when gasoline prices have been stable, is nothing but a way to make advertised prices look better, and to avoid giving discounts or commissions to corporations and travel agents.
In fact, fuel is a cost component for almost anything you buy. When’s the last time you went to the grocery store, and all the produce had a separate surcharge, which only showed up at checkout, based on how far it traveled to get there?
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
