Sky Talk

Airline wants to charge a fee for just buying a ticket

Scott McCartney at the Wall Street Journal has a good column today about a plan by Spirit Airlines to charge a fee of up to $10 for simply buying a ticket anywhere other than at an airport ticket counter (which means the fee would apply to the vast, vast majority of fares sold).

Isn't that just a fare increase? Not exactly. For Spirit, the beauty of a ticket fee is that it wouldn't show up on most travel reservation systems until the customer is actually ready to buy the fare. So when comparing a Spirit fare with, say, United on a site like Travelocity, Spirit may appear to be cheaper even though it might be the same price, or even more expensive, once purchased.

The fee hasn't yet been approved by the Department of Transportation, but McCartney reports that Spirit is actively negotiating to get it implemented.

- Trebor Banstetter

Obama plans passenger fee hike

The federal budget proposed yesterday by Barack Obama would hike passenger security fees in 2012 by an undisclosed amount, according to a report at CNN.com. Administration officials say the current fee - which totals $2.50 for each leg of a trip with a $5 maximum - captures just 36 percent of the cost of aviation security.

The Air Transport Association, an industry trade group, has vowed to fight the proposed hike.

- Trebor Banstetter

Air Canada drops checked baggage fee

Air Canada has dropped its fee on a second piece of checked baggage, citing the recent drop in jet fuel prices. Will U.S. carriers like American and United follow suit? Most of the people I talk to think that's unlikely to happen, at least in the current environment - the fees are projected to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for the carriers.

- Trebor Banstetter

A frightening flashback to math class

Tom Parsons just posed this mind-twisting math problem (to a journalism major, anyway) at BestFares.com: "If you bought a roundtrip ticket on United Airlines and checked two bags weighing 60 lbs each, how much would it cost you?"

Hmm, OK, let's see ... two bags, that's $15 for the first bag and $50 for the second. But wait, they're 60 lbs, which means they're overweight ... so that's another $125 for each bag ... add it all up ... carry the seven ... that's $315. Wow, that's a lot of money. But wait ... he said round trip .. so we're actually looking at $630 to check the bags for both flights. Six hundred and thirty dollars. Yowza.

Parsons notes that "just a couple of years ago, in the fall of 2006, most major airlines permitted two checked bags weighing up to 70 lbs each for free."

No wonder so many of us are stuffing everything into those overhead compartments. I got a note from a colleague who was on a flight the other day, and this is what she had to say:

"... both the flight there and on the way back, people were CRAMMING their luggage into the overhead bins. Like, to the point where I wanted to start throwing elbows. One lady actually had the audacity to open up her suitcase- in the very small aisle as a line formed behind her- and rearrange her clothes so she could stuff hers back into the overhead bin. We took off late. Because of her. I glared at the back of her head the entire flight. GRRRRRRR."

- Trebor Banstetter

Overhead bins stuffed to the max

We wrote in this morning's Star-Telegram and at Star-Telegram.com about United's decision to double the charge for a second checked bag. USA Today, meanwhile, has weighed in on how baggage fees are affecting the already-scarce space in the overhead bin.

There aren't any hard numbers on carry-on bags, but reports from passengers and flight crews certainly indicate that overhead luggage bins are filling up fast, particularly on popular leisure routes.

- Trebor Banstetter

Delta doubles second bag fee

Delta said this afternoon that it would increase its fee to check a second bag from $25 to $50 each way. The airline said it would continue to offer a first checked bag for free.

That's a departure from American's new policy of charging $15 for the first bag and $25 for the second. Delta is clearly hoping to snare a few travelers flying with just one bag, while still boosting its luggage revenue somewhat from those flying with a second bag.

For those keeping score, that means that a traveler checking two bags would pay $80 round-trip on American, and $100 on Delta. A one-bag flier, meanwhile, would pay $30 on American, while getting a free ride (in terms of luggage, anyway) on Delta.

- Trebor Banstetter

The Fine Print on Them Fees...

Here's another piece of fine print on those checked bag fees. Upon arriving at D/FW Airport for a flight to Chicago Sunday, I checked in with one bag. My family and I bought our tickets in April, well before the June 15 launch of the fees, so we thought we were good to go.

No such luck. We had to change our itinerary last week, moving up the return date by three days. According to the American Airlines agent, who didn't look like she wanted to be argued with, that changed our itinerary ticketing date and meant we were required to pay the $15 one-way first-checked-bag fee.

I didn't find that one in the Updated Checked Bag Fees section on AA's web site. But we'll pay the $15. That was small change compared to the several hundred dollars in fees and other charges we had to pony up for the change on our return.

-- Scott Nishimura