Online travel sites cry foul over airline fees

By Charisse Jones, USA TODAY


Airline fees are coming so fast that even some travel agents have a hard time keeping up.

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."

U.S. airlines first began charging to check bags in 2008 as fuel prices soared. Since then charges for services that were once considered part of the airfare have increased and multiplied, with the airlines relying on the extra revenue to keep them afloat during the economic downturn. Carriers globally brought in $2.5 billion in bag fees alone during the 12 months ended in September, says analyst Vaughn Cordle of AirlineForecasts.

"A la carte pricing is certainly benefiting the airlines," says Jay Sorensen, president of IdeaWorks, an airline consulting firm. But, he says, it's hurting "travel agents and online travel agencies."

Some travel agents and online sites also want their customers to have the option of paying the extra fees at the time they book their tickets.

"There's a huge customer service benefit in selling these services before customers get to the airport," says Greg Schulze, Expedia's vice president of transport and tour. "Customers are showing up at the airport and being assessed hundreds of dollars' worth of baggage fees."

Paul Ruden of the American Society of Travel Agents says agents should be compensated if they begin to sell extra flight services, or amenities, to passengers, though he thinks it's unlikely they will. "They're doing an enormous amount of work, not just for the customer but also for the airline," he says. As the charges grow, different players in the industry are working on how best to deal with them.

Victoria Day, a spokeswoman for the Air Transport Association, which represents the major U.S. carriers, says that the airlines "clearly reveal" their ancillary fees, particularly on their websites. "They continue to review their websites and other information channels to make sure that information is clearly presented to their customers," she says.

Later this year, the Airlines Reporting Corp., or ARC, which settles transactions on behalf of 190 airlines, expects to provide travel agents with the ability to collect fees.

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.

The goal "is to enable true side-by-side comparisons of options, including costs, across multiple airlines," says Debbie Iannaci, spokeswoman for Amadeus North America, a technology company for the travel industry. For those arranging business travel, 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.




WSG (Fototrips) Reporting and posting news of interest from around the world relating to travel and photography.