Domestic

Fight the Fees: Top Tips

Welcome to Wing Tips, the new air travel blog from the publishers of First Class Flyer. You can read about this unique new publication here. Today's topic: Once "a la carte" pricing applied only to restaurants, but now the airlines are using it to set up an endless set of fees, and lunching on your credit card. Use these tips to forestall their appetite.

Have you noticed a slight, um, "discrepancy" in the quoted price of an airline ticket and the price you actually paid to fly?

The difference, of course, is a gaggle of newly invented fees, pillaging your pocketbook for everything from checking a bag to requesting a pillow.

The fees are the result of what the airlines call "a la carte pricing," in which passengers are charged for every little amenity formerly offered at no extra cost. Born initially to combat sky-high fuel prices, it's a strategy that solves the airlines' longstanding desire to charge more without appearing to charge more for their base ticket prices in a highly competitive market.

And lest you think that these "nickel and dime" fees don't amount to much, note that just one mid-sized airline, AirTran, expects to earn $130 million this year from bag check and preferred seat assignment fees alone. No wonder CEO Bob Fornaro, asked if lower fuel prices mean fees will go away, replied, "We're really unlikely to roll any of them back."

That puts the onus on passengers to fight fees they don't want to pay. Fortunately, strategies have been developed to help. The website travel.msn.com, among others, recently listed some. Here's a summary:

--Double Bag It. With many airlines now charging a second bag checked fee, the temptation is to overstuff the first to avoid the second. That's a no-no. Overweight/oversize bag fees dwarf second bag fees, and range as high as $175 on Delta.

The solution: Use two bags, or pack a foldable duffle into which you can transfer a few items to reduce the weight of your primary bag to under the limit.

--Grab a Seat Late. Several carriers now charge to reserve a bulkhead, aisle or other "preferred" seat. But you can get those seats for free by waiting to request your seat until 24 hours prior to departure. That's when the airlines open all remaining inventory at no charge.

-- B.Y.O.A. (Bring Your Own Amenities). That means your headphones (which are usually far superior to those the carriers hand out), an inflatable pillow, even an empty drink container to fill at the airport once you're past security. You might want to pack a snack as well. By the way, there's an urban legend that some flight attendants won't charge these fees if a customer protests, civilly, of course. Is it true? Let us know if you find out.

--How Nice of You, Mr. Hotelier. Several hotel chains (Loews and Klimpton, among them) will reimburse your first checked bag fees with house credits if you present your checked bag receipts. Klimpton's program is called "We Got Your Bag."

Of course, travel decisions should not be made on fees alone. When looking at the price of a flight, add in only those amenities you want, and you may actually get a better deal out of the new system. But there are a couple of ways to avoid virtually the whole issue of fees. Premium seat buyers and airline club members with elite status are exempted from many fees. And there remains one carrier committed to keeping complimentary service alive:

That's Southwest, which proudly declares itself the "Freedom from Fees" airline, and has the policies to back it up. When they say that you're "free to move about the country," they really mean it.