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Airlines are screwing you on baggage fees, convenience fees, and holiday surcharges, read this to find out how to deal with all this.
What can you do, you can’t get anywhere without paying for the flight - that is obvious. But does that mean the airlines have to take advantage of our dependence on their services? It looks like the answer is yes. In the last couple of years, airlines have been coming up with newer and more interesting ways to get us, their customers, to pay more. A few dollars here, a few dollars there, they come up with a way. They are quite creative about it and it doesn’t look like it is about to stop. What are we talking about? Keep reading.
Checking Your Bags
About a year ago, US Airways introduced a two-level payment deal for checking your bags. If you don’t pay for your flight online, you have to pay an additional $5 when you get to the airport. The airlines call this a discount for online customers, but it is actually the opposite. All those people who didn’t think or know about paying online get charged the extra $5. And of course, as always happens in business, one company starts the ball rolling. Now United, Delta, Hawaiian and Continental all charge that extra $5.
The fees for your taking your belongings with you on the plane have gone up too, and even more for international flights. You might be paying up to $25 for your first suitcase if you’re flying closer to home but fly from the U.S. to Europe or to other overseas destinations and you could be paying anywhere up to$60 for the second bag you check.
Nowadays, there are only two airlines that allow you to check your suitcases for free; Jet Blue (but only the first bag) and Southwest (two bags). Nice to know that there are still a couple of airlines who will do things the old way...
It is a good idea to always check online for up-to-date airline fees. And while you’re looking into it, remember that the airlines find other services to charge us for. When you cancel or change your ticket, you get charged, and some of the airlines have a two-level system for this too. Three airlines that have such a twofold price structure for change fees are Alaska, Spirit, and Virgin America. The airlines make a lot of easy money because people so often change their plans.
What about the fees themselves? Naturally they keep going up….sometimes a little slower, sometimes faster….we only have to wait and see how high they will go up this year.
Carry-on Bags
Did you think you can take a small carry-on suitcase onto the flight for free? That is starting to change too. This year Spirit began to charge fees up to $45 for that bag you prefer to hold onto and not check. Only a small handbag that can be placed under the seat doesn’t get charged.
What does this mean? Like you, we are waiting to see if the other airlines will join the party. If they do, then carry-on charges might be the way of the future. This sounds like a little too much – there is even one U.S. senator fighting against these charges. Let’s hope he succeeds in making his voice heard.
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