Travel Sites Demand Lower Airline Fees!

As airlines have come under greater pressure from elevated fuel prices and a decline in travel demand, many have rolled out new fees that only begin when you purchase your ticket. Depending on your carrier, bags, leg room and even pretzels could cost you a premium.

Now, some who help plan and book travel are demanding that the travel industry come up with standards that would let them more easily provide and display up-to-date information on a flight’s final cost, from the fare to baggage fees.

“There’s a real problem getting that information at the same time and in the same manner as the airlines themselves disclose it,” says Art Sackler, executive director of the Interactive Travel Services Association, which represents online travel sites. “When someone goes to book their travel, they expect the information to be there. The less it’s there, the more they’re surprised and the more upset they get.”

Although online sites currently provide links and other tools to help passengers calculate a trip’s cost including extra fees, those who provide the data systems used by the travel industry are working to make the information easier to access.

For those arranging business travels, the explosion of fees presents additional challenges, says Kevin Mitchell of the Business Travel Coalition, from difficulty determining on a card statement what extra charges specifically paid for to how to efficiently get refunds when a trip is canceled.

Mitchell says his organization has joined with other groups and companies in the industry that plan to release recommendations this spring for how the travel sector can better navigate the new, fee-filled landscape.