Peter Greenberg ROAD WARRIOR
Beat
Airline
Fees
The airlines’ strategy to
extract every last penny
from you is paying off…
big-time! In the second
quarter of 2010, U.S. airlines
raked in $2.1 billion in “
ancillary revenue,” up 13 percent from the first quarter.
Many fees are cleverly
hidden. Want to board early
or sit in the exit row? Or
book a ticket over the phone
or in person rather than online? Even get a pillow and
blanket? It could cost you.
A lot of these fees are em-
bedded in the online book-
ing process. Sometimes you
have to click on a box to re-
fuse an offer. Even worse, an
optional charge will pop up
on the screen at the airport
check-in kiosk—right when
you’re in a hurry. My rule of
thumb: Any time an airline
offers you a service, ask, “Is
this going to cost me?”
Send your bags ahead
The biggest source of the
airlines’ extra revenue
comes from baggage fees.
Airlines collected $893
million in baggage fees in
The simple way to avoid checked-bag fees: Don’t check anything! If
you pack smart, you can get everything you need into a carry-on case.
>Roll up your T-shirts and shorts to make them smaller and to fill in gaps.
>Buy packing “cubes” from online companies such as Magellan’s or REI.
Tightly pack items (clothes, underwear, toiletries) into these
mini-cases, then stack them in your luggage.
> Prevent wrinkles in delicate items by folding them over bulkier items, such as sweaters.
> It sounds like a joke, but consider Scottevest, a wild line of jackets and coats with anywhere from 17 to 37 pockets. That
way, you’re wearing what would have been in your checked
bag onto the plane! Take a look, at Scottevest.com.
> Find packing products and tips at OneBag.com and The Universal Packing List ( upl.codeq.info/).
Case Histories How to pack smart
the second quarter of 2010.
Here’s a secret: I haven’t
checked a bag on a domestic flight in more than a
decade. Instead, I ship my
luggage from home. Some
airlines charge upward of
$60 for two suitcases, but
you can ship a 30-pound
bag cross-country using
FedEx Ground or UPS
Ground for $26 to $41. In
some cases it could end up
costing you a bit more, but
the extra value is priceless: door-to-door service,
no schlepping, no waiting
around carousels—and no
paying the airlines to lose
your luggage.
Check your bag (for free!)
Here’s a neat guerrilla tac-
tic: As more and more pas-
sengers roll their suitcases
onboard to avoid fees—
filling the overhead bins
and slowing down the
boarding process as a
result—gate agents have
begun asking if passengers
want to check their carry-
on bags…for free. Don’t
wait. Walk up to the gate
agent and ask if he or she
would like to check your
carry-on bag. You won’t
see that suitcase again
until baggage claim at your
destination.
Avoid fare-change fees
The other major revenue
source for the airlines is
the fee to change a ticket.
On most of the larger airlines you’ll pay up to $150
to change a reservation, on
top of the fare difference.
Southwest—by far the most
fee-free airline—charges
only the fare difference.
(And as its ads proclaim,
the carrier doesn’t charge
to check a suitcase, either.)
If you anticipate a date
change, look into buying
a flexible, full-fare ticket
rather than paying the fees.
If you need to return early,
it may also be cheaper to
abandon the second half of
your old ticket and buy a
one-way fare home.
And by no means should
you pay stiff penalties or
fare differences if you
simply want to change your
flight to a different time
that same day. Most airlines
let you do that for a reasonable fee (about $50). ;
FROM TOP: ART S TREIBER; ILLUSTRATION BY HEADCASE DESIGN; PE TER DAZELE Y/GE T T Y IMAGES
GOT A TRAVEL
QUESTION?
Submit it to Peter Greenberg
at aarp.org/petergreenberg.
