Ticketing Fees
Every time I venture into Manhattan, I’m amazed at the ridiculous lines of hopeful yet clueless tourists who are hoping beyond hope to get a ticket for a Broadway play. I overhear some hilarious things while walking past these lines, “I hope we can get a front row seat!” or, “Let’s get a block of ten so we can all sit together!” or my favorite of all time, “Movie tickets here are almost $20, I hope these tickets are cheaper!” *sigh* Savvy New York play goers will tell you that a front row ticket will run you well into the hundreds of dollars and that you’d best order that “bad boy” many, many months in advance over the internet or by mail order. Alas, you can’t just walk up to the box office and buy a ticket anymore.
You CAN buy an airline ticket at the airline counter, though. In fact, you’re better off if you do. Before I explain why, I think you’d better have a seat. Take a deep breath, gather a nice relaxing beverage, put on your fuzzy bedtime slippers and sit down; you’re not going to like this. The Federal Government’s Department of Transportation has relaxed its guidelines regarding the fees that airlines can “hide” from their advertised prices on websites, travel booking agents, etc. Spirit Airlines is the first to take advantage of this and they’ve decide to hit their passengers with a “passenger usage fee.” For $10 per ticket you can buy the privilege to buy your ticket at any location OTHER THAN Spirit’s ticket counter at the airport!
Spirit Airlines has done quite a few radical things to stay solvent like imposing “natural occurrence interruption fees” to all passengers to cover their cost of storm related delays, “international service recovery fees” to pay for foreign taxes imposed by foreign governments. They’ve even gone so far as to post billboards inside the flight cabins and to print ads on their flight attendants’ uniforms (Remember the “Bail Bonds” add on the back of the little league uniforms from the “Bad News Bears?” I always loved that).
If other airlines follow (and let’s be honest, why wouldn’t they?), you could soon be looking at paying anywhere from $20 to $50 MORE than an advertised price you see for a ticketed fare. Here’s a great example, suppose you see an advertisement that says, “Houston to Los Angeles for $129!” That looks attractive. Now do the real math: That advertised rate is probably for a one way ticket. You wish to come home eventually, so you have to double that. Then add your ticketing fee, luggage fee, storm fee, taxes, etc, and now you’re looking at $300… $600 if you want to take your wife! $600 is a far cry from $129.
Sadly, I can’t fix this for you. I can’t even suggest to you anything other than, “Be aware of the total cost before you give out your credit card!” Oh, and if you’re flying to New York to see a play… you might want to buy that ticket early, too!
EXTRA: If you have questions for Ken regarding business travel, hotels, airplanes, etc, please call 1-877-49-EXPERT. Your questions will be recorded and Ken will answer the best ones in his Ask the Expert podcast show.
