I'm sure that additional $10 will be passed on to all the airline employees who have to deal with the increased stress and cranky passengers... you know, that or not at all.

Geh, I almost got caught by this this year. Luckily (?) for me though my employer wouldn't let me have off all the days that I wanted.

Off topic, but... That kitty looks exactly like one of mine!

Why aren't the tickets just more expensive on those days? What am I missing?

@Thaddeus: If that were the case I would be all for it!

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): Your missing the fact that 90% of people on this earth are idiots. And as being that we are all idiots, we couldn't do anything that had common sense.

What a crock of shit. Passengers are already paying for fuel as part of their ticket price and having fuller planes just means that there's more money to pay for fuel. It's on the emptier flights where the airlines might find that their fuel costs aren't as well covered. They've just invented another way to make money.

Yay airline deregulation! See how free market competition without gov't oversight gives the consumer the lowest prices possible?

Oh, wait. It doesn't.

What the $%^#!!!!!!!!!

As much as I don't support airline regulations like it was previous to the 80's, you legacy airlines are REALLY asking for government to look into regulating you guys aren't you?

Wooo! I already booked my holiday airfare. I was flying on 2 of the dates mentioned. Sucks to be you, Continental! You're not getting my $10 fee!

Say goodbye to my business, all of those airlines on the list. I'd rather pay more for a fare that was all-inclusive than one that I have no idea what will cost after fee after fee.

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): I'm assuming that if it's a surcharge and not part of the base fare they don't need to pay travel agents/websites commission on that part of the sale. I assume that's why they really like these fuel surcharges too.

American Airlines Flight Cost & Fee List:

Nonstop Flight Between JFK and LAX: $49
Taxes, Airport Fees, Security Fees: $18
Internet booking fee on 3rd party site: $5
Internet booking fee on AA site: $4.99
Telephone booking fee: $10

Aisle seat fee: $35
Window seat fee: $50
Middle seat fee: $25
Middle-of-the-5-connected-seats-on-a-777 fee: $20

Extra weight fee (for passengers over 168 lbs): $1/lb

First bag fee: $20
Second bag fee: $30
Fee to not check a bag: $10
Fee to carry-on a bag: $10
Fee to not carry-on a bag: $10
Fee to use overhead storage bin: $7.50
Fee to use space under your seat: $7.50

Fee for curbside checkin: $10
Fee for counter human-assisted checkin: $8
Fee for unattended kiosk checkin: $4
Fee for Internet checkin: $6.99

Fee to use waiting area at gate: $10
Fee to use electrical outlets at gate area: $1/min
Fee for pre-boarding: $75
Fee for waiting to board with the rest of the riff-raff: $5

Flight attendent instructional demonstration fee: $5
Fee for not watching the instructional demonstration: $10
Fee to instruct you to turn off all electronic devices: $3
Fee to ensure that you are buckled in: $3

Snack: $3
Crappy meal: $8
Soft drink: $3.50
Alcohol: $market price based on number of screaming babies
Cup of ice: $3
Bringing your own beverage on board: $2
Bringing your own food on board: $2 per bag

Crappy headphones: $5
Fee to bring your own AA headphones: $3
Fee to bring your own noise-cancelling headphones: $10
Fee for using your laptop: $10
Fee for seatback telephone usage: $3.99/min
Fee to watch 60-minutes (and other hip-replacement-network fare) $5
Fee to watch the annoying movie: $3.99
Fee to read Connections magazine: $2
Removal of Connections magazine: $10
Fee to use barf-bag: $20

Fees to use lavatory: #1: $5, #2: $10, Mile-high-club: $100

Fee for turbulence-free flight: $10
Fee for landing the aircraft on terra firma: $20
Deplaning fee: $5 payable directly to flight attendant(s)

Fee for claiming each checked bag: $5
Fee for reporting missing or damaged items: $5 per article or $100 per bag
Deductible for each damaged or missing item: $100 per article or $2000 per bag

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): Thank You !

If it's a busier time and you want to charge a higher price - fine . Just do it . I even understand it because hotels have been doing it for ever . Try booking a beach front hotel in July as compared to October and check out the difference in price.

@Lyrrad: I believe you've hit the proverbial nail on its proverbial head. And what about the tax structure too? I wonder if that $10 is subject to the various taxes that the 'fares' get hit with? Because then we'd pay even more.

@zacox: The only fee in your list I'd pay is for the alcohol. But please, let's not make it easy for them by coming up with these lists.

I am more concerned about all of the airlines doing it at once. This reeks of collusion.

@nybiker: Nothing they haven't already thought of themselves.

And believe me, if they thought for a second that they could charge passengers by the weight, they would!

@zacox: I WISH I could find $49 flights from American Airlines. They least I've always paid is $100

@sonneillon: Reeks of? I would say it's out-and-out price fixing! When ADM did this they made a movie about it starring Matt Damon. Why does nobody seem to care when this is done so blatantly by the airlines?

@rachmanut: Ok, it is price fixing which is a form of collusion. The point being that Delta, American, United, Continental seam to act as one when it comes to adding fees.

@Red_Flag:

A cross-country flight today costs as little- in nominal dollars- as it ever has. In real (inflation-adjusted) dollars, flights today are incredibly cheap. Whether this has anything to do with deregulation (for better or worse) is beside the point. Even with these fees, the conjecture that flights are expensive compared to what they once were is just wrong.

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): Trust me, they ARE more expensive those days! So what's with the extra $10 charge??

It seems more like the airlines have the "Can't you see you are bothering me" mentality. It seems that I am bothering them while they try to fly across the country. "I'm sorry I was asking to be on your flight Continental, it's my fault. Here's 10 bucks as an apology."

If the $10 includes a free cat in your luggage, I'm in. And I don't even like to fly.

ARGH. Not Spring Break, I'm supposed to be going back to Texas and actually taking my fiance this time.

Oh well, guess this means I'll win the KLM vs Delta arguement. (The weirdo LIKES Delta. I mean wtf?)

@acvicari: The problem is that while you apply inflation to items we buy, we are paying "less" than what we should, but when its applied to our wages, we are making far far less. Just as an example, the employer I started with after college 19 years ago still pays new college graduates the same amount I made, absolutely no inflation whatsoever. But those college grads now have much higher expenses due to inflation. So compared to our wages, those airline costs are not cheap.

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): But they are. The airlines never give "deals" on days around holidays, those are always the full fare price that is never discounted. For example, you can fly to Europe in the fall for at least half of what it costs to fly at Christmas time.

But because the airlines know they can and will get a full flight at Christmas time, they can add on these extra fees and people that have to fly to visit family will have to pay. Its not like one can "just switch" spending time with family at Christmas with spending time during the first week of October.

@zacox: Glad towards the end there I realized you were joking. I am just getting to fly out in three hours and was going to be pissed if I needed7 bucks for being over 168 lbs.

@Green Goth Brit Chick - AlternatEve: Oh yeah- like how when I want to get to/from the States from Shanghai I insist on taking ANA or JAL and stopping in Tokyo/Osaka in the process but my mom always refuses because of the mileage balance in our UA mileage accounts. This despite the fact that flying on ANA would accumulate mileage in our UA accounts all the same. These days I can't imagine how anyone would want to fly on an American legacy airline. All Virgin America needs is better integration with V Australia/Virgin Atlantic and they're set to supplant any of these as a "dominant" airline.

@jamar0303: I flew on Virgin America yesterday from Boston - San Fran. I LOVED it. It was only $109 non-stop. They are my new favorite airline. It's too bad they only serve 10 US cities (when they add FLL in a month) and only go to the west coast from the east coast.

Overall, awesome plane (with internet access, mood lighting, plenty of legroom (I am 6'1"), plugs at every seat (that don't need the special airplane adapters to use) and awesome IFE). SWA used to be my favorite but they are boring compared to VA.

These airlines are doing Southwest's marketing job for them. Southwest is growing their business off these other airlines' constant groveling for $10 scraps here and there.

@usa_gatekeeper: And ya know, I would fly SWA even if they were more expensive than the "full fare" airlines, simply because they disclose all the fees up front and don't try to nickel and dime us to death.

@zacox: You forgot the fee for not paying the fees in advanced ($15) and the fee for paying the fees in advanced ($15).

@sonneillon: There was a piece on NPR about grocery stores and "price fixing". The problem is, it's almost impossible to crack down on, since it's of course legal to look at what the competition is doing and change your prices, match, discount, or increase prices accordingly. Three of the major airlines added this "holiday travel" fee about three weeks ago. There wasn't enough backlash so the others went for it. Nice.

@acvicari: And, while that may be true with caveats like Jevia pointed out, you're also failing to account for the decrease in quality of service. No longer do we receive free meals on transcontinental flights (or beverages, sometimes), nor free...well...anything. Even if prices have stayed the same, the overall experience has been significantly downgraded. It's tough to put an exact price on that, yes, but it IS noteworthy as part of the decay of air travel.

@TD0gg: As much as I'm pro-deregulation in SOME circumstances, the US REALLY could stand to benefit from a no-kidding NATIONAL airline, much like Britain has BA, Australia has Qantas, France has Air France, etc. Sometimes regulation is a good thing, sometimes it's a NECESSARY thing.

@sprocket79: They will get it out of you in other ways. Trust me.

Dear airlines,

I refuse to buy into your fees and surcharges. Thanks for turning my travel technology calendar back a hundred years to when flying is no longer a viable option. If I can't get there by automobile, I just won't get there.

@INsano: The point is that even those 3 did it at once and you are right there are all sorts of kick backs and various types of collusion going on at all levels of business from retail to corporate.

@Jevia:

In 1977, pre-deregulation, LA-NYC (one way) cost $412 (the regulated fare). If you book the flight for tomorrow (10/13/09), it's $340 (JetBlue, Delta, or American, just pulled it off of Kayak).

$412 in 1977 dollars is $1448 in today's dollars. So, inflation-adjusted, that airfare is down about 76%. Given the choice, I'd rather pay $340 and bring my own food than $1448 and have full food service.

In comparison, a Chevy Malibu was about $4k in 1977. Today, it starts at $22k. So, in 1977, a one-way flight from LA to New York cost about 10% the cost of a new sedan. Today it's less than 2%.

@Kevin108:

If you were turning your travel calendar back 100 years, you'd be taking the train.

@tailstoo:

The fee is included in the posted fare.

@NeverLetMeDown: Thank you for that. I always have to remind people of such facts, especially food prices.