Wow. Surprising that United waived the fee. But to be fair, we need to know what part of that $300 w

Steven Allen says he got a bad one recently when he called to change a United Airlines ticket from San Francisco to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. To move his return date from Oct. 25 to Oct. 27, the airline wanted him to pay another $300, nearly half the $686 airfare.
Allen, a college instructor in Berkeley, Calif., who like a lot of leisure travelers exotic car rentals toronto isn't fully aware of all the fees that airlines now impose on passengers, says that the surcharge was unreasonable. "It's disappointing," he said.
Other passengers are also frustrated by airline fees — specifically, by the fact that fees are often poorly disclosed until it's time to pay them. (United's Web site indicates that a fee "may apply" for ticket changes, but it offers no details.)
The domestic airline industry as a whole is in the process of re-imagining exotic car rentals toronto its business model, moving away from one in which the price of a ticket covers the basic cost of air transportation to one in which optional fees account for much of its profits.
A new survey underscores air travelers' dissatisfaction with the change. The poll, conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Open Allies for Airfare Transparency, a coalition of online travel agencies and electronic travel distribution companies, suggests that many air travelers are clueless about fees. It found that 94 percent of Americans who'd recently used an online travel company to book their travel said that all airline fee information should be available to travel agents and online travel Web sites, which isn't the case now.
David Kelly, Open Allies' executive director, called the results a "wake-up exotic car rentals toronto call" and said they prove that passengers want to know exactly what they'll have to pay before they open their wallets. "The survey data demonstrates that consumers expect airlines to share fees in a transparent and purchasable format in all the channels where they sell their fares," he added.
Open Allies didn't order up the survey because it's opposed to fees. On the contrary, it's pushing the government to force airlines to disclose fees so that its members can sell the optional extras, sharing in the air carriers' windfall.
Airlines say that the current rules are sufficient. Transportation exotic car rentals toronto Department regulations that took effect earlier this year require exotic car rentals toronto air carriers to prominently disclose all optional surcharges on their Web sites and to include any mandatory fees and taxes in quoted fares. "United's fees are clearly disclosed online, in accordance with federal exotic car rentals toronto regulations," says Charles Hobart, a United spokesman. He adds that United also discloses ticket change fees in the individual reservation, because those fees can vary.
It isn't just ticket-change fees that irk travelers. Legacy airlines have added a variety of charges, for extras such as the first checked bag and seat reservations. Some discount carriers are more aggressive, charging fees for carry-on bags and for the "convenience" of booking through exotic car rentals toronto their Web sites.
Together, those fees generated more than $10 billion for the airline industry worldwide in 2011, according to a recent study by the airline consultancy firm IdeaWorks. For many airlines, the fees made the difference between a profit and a loss, and in a few instances, they might have made the difference between survival and liquidation.
But at what cost? "From the passenger's perspective, the price of that $10-plus billion is the truth," says Charles Leocha, president of the Consumer Travel Alliance and the consumer representative to the DOT's Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protection. "Somewhere during the booking process, the passengers weren't told the full cost of air travel." (Disclosure: I co-founded the Consumer Travel Alliance and serve as its volunteer ombudsman.)
It's easy to mislead customers, even when you're complying with government regulations. Airlines do it by not including all charges in the price of a ticket, exotic car rentals toronto making the fare seem less than it is. And history lends a hand. Traditionally, making a seat reservation, paying for a ticket by credit card or printing a boarding pass at the airport has been included in the fare price. But now, the airlines have quietly "unbundled" those services while doing little or nothing to inform the public that tickets now don't include exotic car rentals toronto them.
Leocha says that regulators are struggling with how to address what he sees as unfair and deceptive pricing practices. Strictly speaking, the fees now being charged by airlines are completely legal, and their disclosure meets all government standards. Yet many passengers still feel duped when they unexpectedly have to pay extra for something while they're flying. More than half of the passengers surveyed by Harris said that they're still being surprised by fees after they buy their airline tickets.
The problem is simple: In deciding to shift to a fee-based system for airline tickets, exotic car rentals toronto airlines did their homework, making sure that every step they took was legal, though not necessarily transparent.
The solution won't be so easy. It will take creative regulations exotic car rentals toronto or new legislation to overcome misleading airline ticket prices. And both of those routes mean that consumers won't see solutions exotic car rentals toronto for more than a year.
But a little exotic car rentals toronto pressure from the flying public could bring a fix closer. That's what happened to Allen when he was faced with the change fee from United. He sent a polite e-mail to the airline's director of customer care and copied me, explaining that he thought the charge exotic car rentals toronto was absurd. exotic car rentals toronto "Surely," he wrote, "you can't believe that anyone who has been charged such a fee would ever fly with United again."
To his surprise, he received a call a few days later. A United exotic car rentals toronto representative reiterated the company's position that the fee was correct but then added that, as a goodwill gesture, it would waive it.
That decision, as I noted a few days ago on my customer-service blog, gives me hope that airlines will see that fees — and the way they're being charged — are not an effective long-term business model. And it makes me think that airlines can find a smarter way of making money long before any government exotic car rentals toronto action is taken.
Wow. Surprising that United waived the fee. But to be fair, we need to know what part of that $300 was a change fee and what part was a difference in airfare, and also how far ahead he called to change. In all my years of traveling the world, I think I ve had to change a ticket exotic car rentals toronto date a total of one time. I think it s hard to nail down the actual exotic car rentals toronto value as it s not as straightforward as a simple change fee. It s also whether the original ticket can be sold so I think airlines are taking advantage of that and charging the maximum that the market will bear (ie. just slightly less than buying a whole new ticket.)
Well, I m going to sound like a broken record, but the only way to fix this situation is to address the underlying root cause. As it s being pointed out, it s all about the revenue. The decision to charge these ridiculous fees is driven by a very simple reason, it brings in money.
It is, therefore, a very simple exotic car rentals toronto logical process to conclude that the only way to change this, is to have the change also driven by revenue. If the airlines conclude that more people are turning to alternatives to flying because of these fees, and because they do not wish to be harassed by minimum-wage (and now unionized) goons with a badge, or have their guts fried by a pornozapper, when they go to the airport, then things exotic car rentals toronto will change.
You can hope all you want for more government and consumer regulations, but it will never happen, or amount to anything. Only a revenue squeeze, from more and more people making a conscious decision to travel by other means, when they can, and making it clear to the airlines what they re doing, and why, will result in any change, here. The airlines are doing that because it s making money for them. If they conclude that it s now costing them money, then they ll stop. Otherwise, I see no reason for them to do anything.
I am doing my part. I ve already completed two business trips where I drove instead of flying, as I ve done before. With a distance of around 350 miles, I found that flying only saved me 1-2 hours at the most, compared to driving. So I drove. My next trip is already scheduled for next year, and I ll be driving again. It s a far more comfortable, civilized experience, compared to the zoo at the airport, followed by an hour and a half stuffed into a pressurized sardine can, elbow to knee with others around me, and then waiting at the carousel, wondering whether my bag will arrive, and in what condition.
I might have a longer trip later down the road next year, where flying might not be avoidable; but Amtrak exotic car rentals toronto can also get me there too, and I m seriously considering an overnight trip on the rails, despite the ridiculous time that ll take, just to avoid the madness that commercial flying exotic car rentals toronto is, these days.
In the day when air travel was less common and the internet did not exist, live local travel agents told you orally all the terms and conditions of your ticket. Most still do. So if you are what Chris describes as like a lot of leisure exotic car rentals toronto travelers (not) fully aware of all the fees that airlines now impose on passengers then you had best call a live, in-person exotic car rentals toronto local travel agent. You will get the full story from an expert. You pay for expert advice.
If, however, you decide to assume the responsibilities of a travel agent, no matter the reason, exotic car rentals toronto then you must live with the accompanying responsibilities. That includes reading all warnings, asterisk notes, contracts of carriage and fare limitations. Those are the rules.
The government requires exotic car rentals toronto these contracts exotic car rentals toronto of carriage. Other rules for restrictive fares are responsive to competitive pressures. You have the choice to buy an unrestricted Y or F fare, but few do. Everyone wants a deal. With a deal comes restrictions.
The option, of course, is Big Government sticking its big nose into the airline industry, re-regulating it again, speci