Bargain fares.... til you add up the fees and taxes

Airlines are becoming more clever about how they adverise their flights. Thanks to the downswing in the economy, airline "bargains" abound, with flights being advertised "as low as" $39, $59, $79, $99.

But when you go to the airline websites to book these bargains, it starts to feel like a "bait-n-switch" like you would more commonly find at say, an electronics store - you know, when you see a really great deal on a specific TV/camera/stereo you'd like, so you go into the store, and they go, "Oh, we're out of stock/just sold last one/we don't have that, but why don't you take a look at this model? It's only $40 more..." You go to the airline site and eagerly search out the "just $59!" bargains, only to find out they're only if you fly midweek, stay a Saturday, and oh yes - the thing that is killing ticket prices these days - all the hidden charges that suddenly double the cost of that "cheap" ticket. Or the cheap fares are from weird city combinations that don't apply to you - and your "bargain" fares are three times as expensive!

The thing is that those "bargain" airfares are no longer quite so much of a bargain once the airline starts tacking on fees, which range from straightforward taxes to new and exciting ways to get money out of travelers such as the "September 11th Security Fee" ($2.50 per flight enplanement), airport passenger facility charges ("PFCs"; up to $18 R/T), and US. government excise tax of $3.60 per flight segment. (The "excise tax" is defined as "a user tax to pay for airport construction and airway safety and operations".) Add extra if you're going to Hawaii, Alaska or internationally, where "other government taxes and fees (including foreign taxes based on itinerary or billing address) of up to $180 USD may apply; total may vary slightly based upon currency exchange rate at time of purchase."

I've been looking to book a tropical vacation for later in the year, and have been looking at many destinations. I've been looking to travel with my mother, who lives in another state. For an example in disparity of airfares, taxes and fees and what you get out of them, a long weekend in the Bahamas - over a holiday weekend - from Chicago is around $300, of which approximately $100 was taxes/fees. Now, granted, you CAN get "cheap" fares from Miami to Nassau for $59 each way - before taxes and fees. Tack on those fees/taxes, and the fare ends up at $211 - meaning 44% of that ticket is caused by fees and taxes. There was a time - not too long ago at all - that taxes and fees would rarely exceed $30 per ticket. Now they're regularly hitting $90, $100, or more. The airline industry has quietly let these fees rise over the past year or two, and then they wonder why people are traveling less despite the market being flooded with so-called bargains.

And the bigger the airline, the more the fees seem to add up. The Miami-Nassau flight I listed above is something I found with American. But I recently bought a R/T ticket, Milwaukee to Vegas, on AirTran; that ticket had just $31.70 worth of taxes/fees - $7.20 for "Federal segment tax", $7.50 for "airport passenger facility charge", $5 for R/T 9/11 security fee, and $12 in "other fees". I would ask how there could be such wildly different amounts in taxes in fees - and, oddly enough, the much cheaper fee is for a much longer flight - but I guess that would be like asking how airlines can charge $59 for one seat on the plane and then $900 for another seat on the same flight: it doesn't make sense to the consumer, and it's discouraging to the casual traveler.

Now, granted, airlines make the bulk of their profit from frequent flyers/business travelers. But since the introduction of the whole frequent flyer program idea, airlines have been lavishing more and more onto their frequent flyers, and less and less onto the casual travelers: less leg room, less seat width, less amenities, charging for every little (or big) thing. Today it's charging for extra checked baggage; tomorrow, it's making you pay for carry-ons. Pretty soon, they'll be charging us for toilet paper and window blinds.

Air travel used to be fun, an adventure; today it is a big aggravation, a blood-pressure-raising test of endurance. Paul Theroux wrote many books about the pleasure of traveling by train: having more space and leisure to enjoy the journey, versus the rush-rush and hassle of flying. It may finally be time for trains to make a comeback, and high-speed trains to make their mark on the American landscape - more thoughts on that current topic later this week!