Airlines' fee, policy changes confusing for travelers | The Honolulu Advertiser

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Airlines' fee, policy changes confusing for travelers | The Honolulu Advertiser | Hawaii's Newspaper

Posted on: Sunday, November 16, 2008

FREQUENT FLIER
Airlines' fee, policy changes confusing for travelers

By Tim Winship

When computing the real cost of travel, the published price of that airline ticket is just the beginning.

To determine the actual cost of flying, travelers must add to the ticket price not only taxes and security fees, but the numerous and arcane fees that can double the price of the advertised airfare. Among them: charges for curbside check-in, fees for extra and oversized bags, paper tickets, exit-row seats, blankets, phone bookings, fuel surcharges.

Then there are the niggling restrictions that add or diminish flexibility and convenience to the basic travel service. Sure, you can buy a ticket that is readily refundable if you cancel your trip, or changeable if you alter your plans, but you'll pay a steep price for such restriction-free tickets.

And in the realm of travel loyalty programs — still an important factor in many consumers' value calculation — there are earning rates, award prices, expiration policies, service fees, and a host of other variables that affect the utility of frequent-flier miles and ultimately bear on the value of an airline ticket.

Gone are the days when such rules and policies were relatively static. Today, they seem as fluid as airfares, up one day, down another, here today, gone tomorrow.

What follows is a sampling of the recent fee and policy changes.

Air Canada, one of the originators of the a-la-carte pricing model, has rescinded one of the more nettlesome charges: the fee for the second checked bag. Air Canada introduced the fee in May, and is the first North American carrier to terminate it. And while it may be moot, with the price of oil falling by more than half since its July high, the airline also committed to including any fuel surcharges in its published fares.

Delta: Those fees to check a second bag? At one point, Delta charged $50 for the privilege. But, in concert with a number of other changes, Delta now plans to reduce the fee to $25 for flights departing on or after Dec. 5. That good news is more than offset by a newly imposed $15 fee for the first bag. But that bad news is somewhat offset by the reduction of Delta's $25 phone booking fee to $20.

United followed Delta in reducing its second-bag fee to $25. And through Jan. 31, the airline is offering its customers a 20 percent discount on the $15 charge for the first checked bag, when the fee is paid in advance on United's Web site — nice savings for those who know to take advantage of it.

United, you may recall, began charging for coach meal service on overseas flights in August but reinstated the free meals within weeks in response to complaints from customers.

Continental: As if it weren't enough that travelers had to keep track of which airline charges how much for checking a bag, Continental on Nov. 1 changed its baggage specifications, downsizing the maximum size of bags permitted as carry-ons from 51 to 45 linear inches (the sum of the bag's length, width and height). That change comes less than a month after Continental implemented a $15 charge for checking the first bag.

US Airways: Traditionally, airline pillows were either a nuisance (to be stowed in the overhead bin, space permitting) or a godsend (for red-eye flights). Before the year is out, US Airways will begin charging fliers for the privilege of using them, converting yet another basic necessity into an extra-cost luxury. JetBlue began charging $7 for a blanket-and-pillow combo in August, so there's some precedent for US Airways' move. But in general, US Airways has taken the fee-for-all concept the furthest, with more and higher fees than other carriers.

Southwest has used the other airlines' fee frenzy against them, mounting ads chiding carriers for nickel-and-diming their customers, and promising not to do the same. But Southwest itself isn't above far-reaching rule reversals, as it proved in 2006 when it rescinded its no-blackout date policy for award tickets.

The net effect of such mishmashes of positive and negative changes is hard to compute, depending as it does on their real world impact on individual travelers. Even when the overall outcome is positive, the sheer volume of such changes makes them time-consuming to decipher, confusing, or both.

FREQUENT FLIERS

Delta: In the frequent-flier realm, Delta rolled out its new SkyMiles award scheme on Oct. 1, replacing the traditional restricted and unrestricted awards with a three-tier scheme featuring a new intermediate category of award that offers easier access to award seats but requires more miles than the previous capacity-controlled awards.

American: Also effective from October, American rejiggered its award chart, increasing the number of miles required for a wide range of awards and imposing a cash surcharge of $50 each way for domestic upgrade awards.

United has announced a new award scheme as well, with a Jan. 1, 2009, effective date. While the most popular award — a roundtrip domestic coach ticket at 25,000 miles — remains untouched, some awards will cost as much as 40 percent more miles. And beginning in July 2009, members of United's program will be assessed cash surcharges for upgrades, very much like those in American's program. On a positive note, United will also begin allowing international upgrades from discounted coach fares, which is not currently an option.

United and US Airways both recently revoked their policies of awarding a minimum of 500 frequent-flier miles, even for short-haul flights. Continental announced it would do the same, beginning in 2009, but later modified the change to allow elite members of its program to continue earning the 500-mile minimum. American has since announced that it will follow Continental's lead. Delta (including Northwest, which now flies as a Delta subsidiary) is the odd man out here — so far it has retained the 500-mile minimum for all customers.

US Airways and Frontier are the only U.S. carriers still charging a fee to issue what was once a free ticket. American quietly abandoned its $5 award ticketing fee in October.

It's tempting to wrap up with a paragraph beginning, "When the dust settles. ..." But there's no telling when this dust will settle, or how. Until the airlines curtail their flips, flops, flip-flops, and reverse flip-flops, travelers will have to ask not just "What's the rule today?" but also wonder, "What will the rule be tomorrow, next week, and next month?"

Reach Tim Winship at questions@frequentflier.com

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