If it wasn’t costing passengers money right at holiday times, it would be funny. The airlines are once again raising fees. They can’t raise airfares because that would make them uncompetitive, but fees seem to be another thing. Bottom line: Plan to spend another $20 round-trip to your holiday travels on high-travel days.
We reported the first holiday surcharge (or was it a fuel surcharge) back in September. Then in October the airlines expanded the definition of holidays, adding surcharges through spring break next year.
Now, according to an AP report, “US Airways spokesman Morgan Durrant confirmed the higher peak-day surcharges, but he said his airline did so only ‘to match moves by our competitors.’”
You gotta love the airlines’ explanations. At least, one would expect the airline PR factories to gin up more novel excuses than “we raised our prices to stay competitive.” It is usually the other way around. Maybe we’ll be hearing, “The devil made me do it,” next.
Here are the, now, $20-extra airfare days:
* November 29 – November 30, 2009
* December 19, 2009
* December 26 – December 27, 2009
* January 2 – January 3, 2010
* March 14, 2010
* March 20 – March 21, 2010
* March 28, 2010
* April 11, 2010
* May 28, 2010
Footnote: Add this excellent fee chart from Kayak.com to your bookmarks.
