Travel expert to the stars Christopher Elliott has a new column that explains 4 new or grotesquely inflated airline fees and some ways to get around them…
The fees are:
1) Beverages– Bring an empty water bottle and hit the drinking fountain.
2) Checked luggage– Avoid certain stupid airlines or become a carry-on ninja.
3) Award tickets– Fuel surcharges are making award tickets suck. Cash in your miles, or use your awards for something else.
4) Unaccompanied minors– Avoid airlines with insane fees or fly with your kid. At these rates, it might be worth it.
In depth explanations and more specific advice on how to get around these fees is given here, but we liked this way the best:
Of course, the best way around all of these fees is to fly on an airline that doesn’t have them. Southwest Airlines still allows you to check two bags at no extra charge. JetBlue still serves free drinks and snacks and charges $25 less than the big airlines for unaccompanied minors. Supporting these less fee-prone companies will hasten the inevitable demise of the airlines that erroneously believe they can surcharge their way back to a profit.
Four new airline fees — and how to avoid them [CNN] (Thanks, j!)
(Photo: hellochris )
More From Consumerist
-
Which Airlines Pile On The Most Fees? Compare And Learn
-
Sorry Airlines, Court Says You Have To Tell The Truth About Airfares
-
Fuel Costs Not Going Up That Fast But Airlines Like Tacking On Surcharges Anyway
-
You Might Want To Skip Any Airline Not On This List Of Those Who Serve Free Booze
-
Do You Get More Satisfaction From Cheap Airlines Than Legacy Carriers Because You Expect Less?
Yeah, I’m really going to be able to drive to London next year when I go on vacation, aren’t I?
The Germans are very innovative when it comes to automobile engineering, but I think I might run into a bit of trouble when I drive my Volkswagen into the Atlantic. I don’t think they’ve gotten that kind of technology yet.
@IamNotToddDavis: There are several other reasons that Southwest hasn’t been whining to Congress to bail them out, most significantly the “no frills” approach they took.
That’s certainly part of it, but I think the most significant part is their shrewd
fuel hedging.
About becoming a carry-on ninja…why not just travel with less crap? I see people bring too much stuff each time I fly, and yes, the schmucks are out there trying to find space to fit their bags overhead. Learn to accept that you’re not going to be at home, but rather AWAY from home, so make do with the least amount of stuff as you can. It’ll make coming home even sweeter.
This is the worst consumerist article ever. Since when is “Avoid It” an actual piece of advice?
Wanna know how to not die tomorrow? Avoid jumping off a bridge. Wanna avoid getting diarrhea? Avoid Taco Bell.
There, my advice is even more valuable.
The cost of fuel is really causing the airline companies problems, so they are taking a hint from the banks, and are developing a system of ‘fees’ that increase the cost of using a airline with out raising the price of their base fares to much. They should really just raise the base ticket fare and eliminate the ‘fee for all’.
@snoop-blog: Explain how I’m going to drive or take the bus between Boston and Florence, Italy. I’d like to see that
.
I like to think I’ve found a balance between being a self contained unit while traveling and taking the crap I need for when I get there.
Its horrible, but a third of my carryon is dedicated to “stuff to survive the airport” – a book, a pillow, a thermal blanket, a water bottle. (After being stranded overnight in Atlanta after the hotel rooms gave out, I don’t travel on a connecting flight without a pillow and a blanket. Heading to the airport is hostile territory and is treated as such.)
I’m still a carryon ninja. 22″ and I happily check it plane side as often as I can. The few times I’ve been forced to check a bag, I have terrible luck with losing luggage.
American airline companies are getting absolutely ridiculous.
Or wear EVERYTHING, stuff the rest in a coat with huge pockets (I have a trench coat i could conceivably stuff a laptop in), wear that too, carry a garbage bag in your pocket, take it all back off once you get on the plane. They will hate you, but thats ok, the feeling is mutual. Its just simple physics, each action causes an equal and opposite REACTION…or something like that…
PS Yes, I have seen people actually do this back when you could fly cheap as an air courier but not bring on any checked luggage.
The big question is this- if Oil is actually a bubble like some speculate, and if it does eventually burst and drop back 30 or 50%, are the airlines going to drop the fees?
I think not, but I guess we’ll see. They might cut the fees down 10% and celebrate loudly though.
@esqdork: The carry-on ninja could evolve to use soft bags (think duffel/backpack/rucksack) that, no matter how stuffed, could be crammed.
The carry-on behavior that should rub people the wrong way is insistence that one’s carry-on luggage must be within a few steps of one’s seat. I place my bag in the first available compartment on the plane and pick it up on the way out; we’re all going to the same place after all. People who shuffle random things in and out of overhead bins in-flight are obnoxious.
The “fly Southworst/JetBlue” advice is useful only to people who’s sole travel consists of visiting Aunt Tilly in South BFE Kansas. Airplanes DO fly outside the US borders, Southwest and Jet Blue do not, so “the rest of us” have to find other ways around those fees. For me it consists of maintaining frequent flyer status on an int’l carrier. Membership doth have it’s little privileges.
@pigbearpug:
Agreed. You really can survive for 2-5 hours without shoving something in your face. I regularly travel to parts of the world where they eat one meal a day and snacking is basically unheard of.
@snoop-blog: Yes, because its feasable (and cheaper) to drive from L.A. to New York.
That makes no sense, my friend.
Unfortunately, driving for me is unrealistic (1000+ miles along the East Coast) to get to where I go to college. I could save money in the short run on Southwest or JetBlue in the short-run, but as I plan to travel outside the country a bit in the next few years, it’d be nice to rack up several thousand miles on American. Southwest and JetBlue are great, but I need to think of the future.
I just flew Southwest this past weekend – not only can you check two bags for free, but what the article here doesn’t mention is they still serve snacks and drinks free of charge as well. I was quite content with my peanuts and coke.
Southwest is a great airline to fly if you don’t have to drive 3 hours to get to the closest terminal
@TheStonepedo: That’s why I keep whatever I might instantly need for the flight in a large, collapsable purse. That stays under the seat in front of me, and my other carry-on can go wherever it needs to.
I still don’t get the hype about Southwest. The only time I flew them, my mother picked the flight for me, and I was accompanying my grandmother, so of course we got preferential treatment. Every time I’ve looked up flights with them, their prices have been disgustingly high.
@RabbitDinner:
In agreement here, Rabbit! The only thing is that those restrictions they had on the size of the carry-on lugagge, were never lifted. So go get you a 21 inches tall duffel bag. Do not get the ones like the pilots use.This ones are too rigid. If by any chance you’re a couple of inches over the established depth size for carry-on, with a duffel bag you can push it into fitting the size requirement.
One more thing, ladies, I know, I know, you don’t like big purses or pocketbooks. But this is an occassion where that huge doohicky your aunt Dorothy gave you for Christmas could be useful. The airlines have not arrived, yet, to the point where they charge you for your purse. If you do not have a pursse that big, then use a backpack. There are some very sophisticated and classy looking ones. Those are the ones you want to use; you can tell the airline that it IS your purse.
Well, good luck everyone. Meanwhile my family and I will stay where we are, and will keep sending digital pictures to everyone everywhere!
@littlemoose: From “slightly over the carry-on size limit” it’s a slippery slope to real jerk behavior. Those limits are in place for a reason — a few inches here and there on everybody’s carry-on baggage becomes a lot of volume very quickly. On an American flight (LGA to ORD) in February I saw a man forced to gate-check his (within limit) carry-on because the bins were full.
@TheStonepedo: Are you referring to taking an available space after most of the plane is boarded or early in boarding? I hate it when people who 1) board first and 2) sit at the rear put their stuff up front, because they force the people who board later and sit towards the front to trek to the back of the plane to stow and retrieve their bags. Anyway, if the limits are properly enforced, wouldn’t all the baggage for a given row fit in that row’s overhead bins and under-seat space?
@Aisley: Amen on the giant purses. I call them “body bags,” because the only conceivable reason I can think for carrying a purse that large (and I am a woman who carries purses) is that you have killed somebody and are disposing of the dismembered body.
@Aisley: Or, just put your purse inside one of your alloted carry-ons. Last time I flew, I carried a soft duffel with my clothes/toiletries/etc in it, and an enormous tote bag that held my normal-sized purse, magazines, snacks, iPod, laptop, and god knows what else. It was soft, so it still fit under my seat just fine, and I just took my purse out after I got off the plane. Last I heard, they still haven’t found a way to charge me for having too many carry-ons outside of the terminal.
@Aisley: I’m with Aisley & RabbitDinner. I have a nice leather purse with backpack straps for the meds and important stuff, and a soft carryon that can squish in anywhere. Wear the bulkiest stuff (jeans, running shoes, jacket). I fly mostly domestic so my philosophy is that there’s a Walmart or Target everywhere to replace stuff left behind.
Besides, I like buying new underwear when I travel.
I’d love to fly Southwest, but they never fly anywhere I need to go. And seemingly none of the other small airlines will do routes between cities of less than a million. Please tell us what we’re supposed to do when we’re stuck with only the old airlines. And when did Frontier become so expensive?