May 2012 Travelfocus TSI USA Monthly Newsletter Travelvacations
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focus newsletter May 2012 Newsletter Making reservations over the phone? Contents: Cashing in miles? It’ll cost you... - Making reservations over the phone? Cashing in miles? ... BAA Limited - TSA tests airport check-in system ... (eTN) Let’s face it. As an industry, airlines have - Airlines for America urges more TSA effi ciency, not more ... never made money since the Wright Brothers. - Global airline capacity grows for 9th consecutive month ... - China plans 45 new airports to serve booming travel ... Because of this mismanagement, they’ve - American Airlines Update ... decided to try lining their coffers by coming - United Airlines 2012 PerksPlus Program ... up with a slew of obnoxious extra charges. - Delta Launches Historic New Jet Service from New York ... Whatever additional costs these services could possibly impose on the airlines are clearly lower - Phishing Email Alert From Delta ... than what passengers pay. Read on for the most egregious examples. 1. Making a reservation on the phone or in person Fee: $5-$20. US Airways is among the greediest on this count: $10 to book over the phone, or $20 to book at the airport or at a city ticket offi ce (if you can fi nd one). Can it possibly cost US Airways that much for a simple 10-minute call? Surely the airline doesn’t pay its reservationists that much. United levies $15 for the privilege of speaking to a human. American, JetBlue, and Southwest $10 (for internet-only fares in Southwest’s case, but Airfarewatchdog.com is told Southwest does make exceptions). Northwest and Virgin America charge just $5. Continued Making reservations over the phone? Cashing in miles? It’ll cost you... 2. Re-banking frequent fl yer miles Fee: $50-100. If you cash in your miles and decide not to use your ticket, you’ll be hit with a fee to place the miles back into your account. Why? What cost exactly is involved here on the airlines’ part? These tickets are issued electronically, so what’s the big deal? 3. Cashing in frequent fl yer miles without suffi cient advance notice Fee: $0-100. Who says frequent fl yer tickets are free? Some airlines will let you book a frequent-fl yer seat even up to the day of travel with no fee. These include Airtran, JetBlue, Northwest and Southwest. But others (Continental, Delta, and United) charge $75 if you book without enough notice (defi ned as 3 days on Continental but an unreasonable 22 days on Delta); and American charges an insane $100 if you book 6 days or fewer before departure. 4. Bringing a pet onboard in the cabin Fee: $50-85 (each way). These fees have skyrocketed lately. Muffy and Buffy won’t be ringing the call button for a glass of milk, and they won’t be carrying bags or imposing on the airline’s bottom line in any way; but their fare might end up costing more than yours. Most airlines now charge $80 each way. On United you’ll pay $85, on JetBlue “just” $50. 5. Checking luggage Fee: $3-10 (each way). We’re talking here just about checking even one bag, even if they’re not oversized or overweight (that’s a whole other story). Spirit Airlines charges $5 for each of the fi rst two bags if paid for online, $10 each otherwise. The third bag costs a whopping $100, more if it’s oversized or overweight. Skybus also charges $5 for the fi rst two, and $50 for each additional. Allegiant charges $3 for the fi rst, $5 for the second. Air Canada gives you a discount for not checking baggage, which is a sneaky way of charging you if you do. It’s not like the airlines are giving us bigger overhead bins, so that’s the big idea here? Don’t be surprised if you see other airlines following suit. 6. Getting a refund when a fare goes down Fee: $25 to $200 or more. If you bought a TV from Costco or BestBuy and they lowered the price the following week, chances are you could get a refund, no questions asked. Even Apple gave credits when it dropped the Book a balcony or suite on select 2012 Europe sailings starti ng at and enjoy a complimentary dinner for two!* $499 Stand in awe before the works of Michelangelo in Italy or Gaudí’s disti ncti ve architecture in Spain. Wonder at delicate masterpieces in Oslo’s Hadeland Glassworks. From the fj ords of Norway to the waterways of Venice to the ruins of the Mediterranean, explore the richness and beauty of Europe in a totally new way. Call Travel Vacati on today to book: 800-627-2987 *A bott le of wine will be substi tuted on ships that do not have a specialty restaurant. Restricti ons may apply. May 2012 Newsletter INfocus Continued Making reservations over the phone? Cashing in miles? It’ll cost you... price of its iPhone soon after launching it. But most airlines either will refund nothing (British Airways and most other international carriers) or they’ll charge an “administrative fee” of up to $100 on a domestic ticket, and even more on an international one. What justifi es this? Does it actually cost them $100 to spend a few minutes to rewrite your electronic ticket? I doubt it. 7. Flying standby on the same day of travel Fee: $0-50. Time was, if there were empty seats on a later or earlier fl ight on the same day as your original, the airline would confi rm you for free. But now, most airlines charge to take an earlier or later fl ight on the same day as your original fl ight if you want a confi rmed seat (you can still take your chances on many airlines and standby without a confi rmation for free, but that’s not the same thing). Only AirTran, among the larger airlines, charges no fee if you show up at the airport before your original departure and wish to take an earlier fl ight, or ask to change to a later departure. American, Continental, JetBlue, Northwest, and US Air charge $25; Delta (always the fee leader) and United sock you for $50. Southwest is a different animal altogether: there’s no fee to go standby as such, but you’ll have to pay the “walk up” last minute fare, which could be hundreds of dollars more than your original discount fare. 8. Paying for lap children Fee: $10 to 10 percent of the adult fare (international fl ights). What on earth is the meaning of this? Your kid isn’t taking up a seat, and certainly isn’t partaking of the free food and booze (if any). Is the little tyke responsible for consuming extra jet fuel? On a fare of say, $1,200, you’ll be billed $120 or more for the privilege of holding the child in your lap for 10 hours (on a business class fare of, say, $5,000 you’ll pay $500). Domestically, Skybus, never to miss the chance to line its pockets, charges a $10 “administrative fee” for lap children. Is that to compensate for the oxygen your infant will be breathing during the fl ight? By the way, if there’s a fuel surcharge on your fl ight, your kiddie will pay that too: as much as $90 each way. 9. Getting a seat assignment Fee: $5-$11 each way. Air Canada, AirTran and Allegiant are some of the carriers that now charge for this “perk.” AirTran charges $5 if you’re on a discounted coach ticket; Allegiant charges $11. AirTran charges $15 if you want to grab an exit-row seat and Northwest recently upped the charge from $15 to $20 (but I still think it’s worth it). 10. Using the lavatory Fee: OK, airlines are not installing pay toilets. Yet. But the way things are going ... *A bott le of wine will be substi tuted on ships that do not have a specialty restaurant. Restricti ons may apply. May 2012 Newsletter INfocus TSA tests airport check-in system By Bart Jansen, USA TODAY Airport check-ins for passengers are heading for higher technological ground. The Transportation Security Administration is testing a system that checks identifi cation and boarding passes by machine rather than the standard visual check by offi cers. The tests began last week at Washington-Dulles International Airport and will start Tuesday at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston and April 23 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The review will last several months, gauging such things as how fast passengers move through the line and how accurate the machines are. While TSA offi cers have been checking identifi cation with black lights and magnifying glasses, the machines are geared to recognize all valid identifi cation, ranging from driver’s licenses to tribal IDs and U.S. and foreign passports. TSA hopes the machines will do a more effi cient job weeding out fraudulent documents and getting passengers to their planes. “For effi ciency, it is fantastic,” says Domenic Bianchini, TSA director of checkpoint technology. “We think it’s a valuable technology, and we think over time we will see the real value added.” As demonstrated at Dulles, passengers step up to the TSA desk and scan the bar codes of their boarding passes, like a can of soup at the self-checkout at a grocery store. The TSA offi cer scans the identifi cation, which the machine authenticates and compares with the boarding pass. The machine doesn’t store any personal information about the passenger, says Greg Soule, a TSA spokesman.