Did you know that a major carrier imposed a $170 fuel fee on certain wholesale airfare rendering the

Sen. Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, seems to think they ought to be considering it. On Monday, he sent a letter to the chief executives at the major airlines, asking how they planned to reduce fares to reflect the decline in fuel prices. In July, airlines paid $4.33 a gallon for jet fuel, on average; last week, the price was $2.34 a gallon, he said.
I understand that you need to recoup marquette hotel minneapolis the losses incurred while prices were rising, and that the economic downturn is impacting your industry, Senator Menendez wrote. But American families are struggling as well, dealing with job losses, falling home values, and a financial market marquette hotel minneapolis that is erasing their retirement savings. It is crucial that you pass on the savings seen from falling fuel prices as quickly as possible.
He added, Now is not the time for Americans to be priced out of traveling that is simply unfair to families who want to spend the holidays with their loved ones and it is bad for our economy in need of a boost.
Thus far, only a few European airlines, among them Lufthansa and Air France/KLM, have reduced their surcharges on passenger tickets but many more foreign and domestic airlines, including Northwest, have cut their fuel surcharges on air cargo, which is priced by size and weight.
Last week, some airline executives cautioned that the price of jet fuel remains too volatile to predict reliably over the next few months, although Richard Anderson, the chief executive at Delta Air Lines, said that falling prices may help the airlines weather the economic and financial crisis and its effects.
It s premature to expect that fares and fees will be where they were before fuel prices increased, said David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, the industry s Washington trade group.
Mr. Castelveter said that his organization could not make a recommendation to individual airlines about fare surcharges because of antitrust laws. But he noted that the increase in jet fuel costs took place over a number of months, while prices have only dropped marquette hotel minneapolis in the past few weeks.
Senator Menendez, who held a news conference this morning at Newark Airport, said consumers at least were owed some clarity from the airlines about the fees they were paying marquette hotel minneapolis on their tickets. The federal government does not require airlines to follow a uniform method in disclosing those fees on their Web sites. Some airlines state them up front as part of the ticket marquette hotel minneapolis price, while others quote the fare separately and add the fees before a purchase is completed.
I urge you to pass the savings from lower jet fuel prices on to the American public by rolling back fuel surcharges and extra fees, Mr. Menendez said in his letter. If you tell the public that you need long-term higher prices to survive, I urge you at the very least to do it directly through fares, rather marquette hotel minneapolis than a collection of confusing and hidden fees.
Don t hold your breathe waiting for this one. Continental charges 15 bucks to check your first bag and 50 for the second. The kicker is they consider all checked baggage excess baggage and declare on the front of the receipt that they are not responsible marquette hotel minneapolis for the timely transportation and delivery of your luggage seeing as how it s excess.
It s nice to see someone out there swing the bat for consumers. Unfortunately, I don t see any reduction happening in this or any industry marquette hotel minneapolis that found a new way to make more money. I trust corporate executives very little to do what is right because to them, what is right is only what is good for executives and shareholders. I can already see their arguments: air passenger marquette hotel minneapolis numbers marquette hotel minneapolis are down so we have to keep the surcharge to break even (but ignore the fact that we are cutting routes). Prices are still too volatile in October, in November, in December, in January ad nausea (pun intended).
Mr. Menendez said in his letter: "If you tell the public that you need long-term higher prices to survive, I urge you at the very least to do it directly through fares, rather than a collection of confusing and hidden fees."
Fair enough, I calculated how much the fuel for my seat from Copenhagen to Manila via Singapore marquette hotel minneapolis cost last June, and how much extra that fuel costs for that stretch. They nicked me for $300, which is about right
These fees are assessed on frequent flyer tickets, too. Again sort of fair enough. On an air france free ticket to Europe in May 2005, the fee was about $80. they are very evasive about these taxes , which are not taxes. For a stretch San Francisco marquette hotel minneapolis Madrid at christmans, however, they say the fuel surcharge is about $400.
Why would a politician send a letter to a private company complaining that their prices are too high? Government should mind its own business and stay out of private industry. It is clear they are no good are running anything, so the less they involve themselves, the better.
thank you for posting this article. i am trying to plan a trip for early 2009 and can t understand why i have to pay a fuel surcharge set months ago when the price of oil was greater than $100 more per barrel than it is currently. seems like a good scheme for the airlines, but i don t have extra funds to help the airlines get rich off of fuel speculation. get rid of the fees, or you won t get my business at all.
Well if the airlines had any brains at all they would start hedging their fuel costs right now and getting it in the low $70 s. Southwest was the only airline that did that for an extended period of time and that is why they were able to make a profit while the others were sinking rather quickly.
Oh wait we ll just have Sen. Menendez and his cronies in WaDC set the ticket prices, and then when the airlines are all in bankruptcy, he can bailout the airlines with our tax dollars. Then everyone marquette hotel minneapolis will be happy, right?!
the airlines are losing any loyalty they might have ever had and the industry is sliding down to the sleezy least common marquette hotel minneapolis demoninator of service. but that might be just what they want fewer customers fewer planes (read lower labor costs) but higher margins. i m already driving much of the shorter trips and saving money and headaches (and don t even get me started on homeland marquette hotel minneapolis security at the airport).
Why does it matter as long as the total price is displayed before you buy the airline ticket? Because this is a classic example of bait and switch. It takes a long time to fill out all of those boxes online and navigate through pages and pages of information in order to buy a ticket. When the price suddenly spikes $80-$400 at the end with unanticipated taxes and fees (HA!), many consumers will just buy the ticket because they re tired of the whole process. The whole purchase decision was based on a fairy-tale price, while the consumer didn t look into an ultimately cheaper fair on another airline which at first looked more expensive. These shenanigans stifle the competition marquette hotel minneapolis which is key for consumers and at the heart of our market-based economy. marquette hotel minneapolis The price you see is the price you should get so that consumers can make informed buying decisions. PERIOD.
As a member of the travel industry I welcome Sen. Menendez support. Many of the airlines continue to close the doors on travel partners which is there right; however the consumer is the looser. Travel marquette hotel minneapolis Agents and Travel Wholesalers provide valuable services and assist with keeping the market competitive.
The banking industry lured us into using ATM's free of charge thus creating a habit of convenience; they succeeded. We now all pay ATM fees huge revenue for banks. The same theory applies with the airline industry as they move to online booking engines and reduce overhead. The problem marquette hotel minneapolis for the consumer less competitive pricing, no more one-stop shopping (think of the time you will spend trying to book a complicated vacation), and no expert advice to assist you in effort. I would also venture to guess the consumer will not reap the benefits of lower overhead. The consumer already pays extraordinary marquette hotel minneapolis dollars in hidden fees for online convenience along with the ridicules amount of new fees placed on everything but your seat belt. (You certainly will not see these fees go away and there using the cost of fuel to validate there direction; don t be fooled.). marquette hotel minneapolis For those of you who say we should not have regulation I disagree. In my 20 plus years in the business we the tax payers have bailed some of these airlines out of financial difficulty more than once. I think we have the right to hold them accountable for there actions lets face it were part owners. Don't think for a moment there are not large management salaries marquette hotel minneapolis and severance packages in this industry sound familiar?
Did you know that a major carrier imposed a $170 fuel fee on certain wholesale airfare rendering the product useless and forcing us to sell retail airfare earning no commission? Tell me is this fare to me the small business owner who spent its own marketing dollars and sales effort to obtain the client? This should be worth something to the airline. To be fair even though American and Delta have matched extra service fees with United, they both have been good about backing off fuel fees and still show a willingness to work with there partners.
I really don t understand the hoopla. American s are used since ages to always pay a lot more than what meets the eye. Go to any restaurant in NYC. You pay, on top of everything, city tax, meal tax, NY state tax, and a tip (and the waiter expects 20% on top of the taxed up price). Well,
When the price of aviation fuel quardruppled, the airline industry in America started charging additional fees upon additional fees. The airline industry piled-on extra fees and charges upon passengers and sought justifications in the increased price of aviation fuel.
Now that aviation fuel price has tumbled or come-down-to-earth, what is the justification for retaining these additional charges and now unnecessary fees that airline marquette hotel minneapolis industry customers have to cough up for the airline industry?
An