2008 Which Airlines Are Fee-Crazy, and Which Are Not?

Which Airlines Are Fee-Crazy, and Which Are Not?
Posted August 28, 2008 at 10:15 am ET by Carl Unger, SmarterTravel.com
Staff
Photo: iStockphoto


It's becoming an old debate nowadays, one we've covered before (and
about which you've had plenty to say), but it's still interesting to
me when someone tries to sort out the airline fee mess and determine
which carriers are the worst offenders. That's exactly what The
Consumerist did, and the results surprised me a little.

First of all, what didn't surprise me was the four airlines deemed
"most fee-crazy": US Airways, United, and American in a third-place
tie. These airlines have led the charge on first-checked-bag fees and
pay-as-you-go in-flight beverages.
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Determining the winners, however, is a trickier task. Sure, Southwest
is an easy choice, with its sparse fees and pledge to remain fee-free
while other airlines rack up the extra charges. Beyond Southwest,
however, pretty much all airlines have implemented some amount of new
fees. Is any one of these other carriers appreciably different from
another?

The Consumerist thinks so, and places AirTran just behind Southwest in
the top three "least fee-crazy" carriers, saying that while AirTran
does charge fees, those fees are generally less than its competitors'.
The same argument is made for JetBlue, third on this list, despite the
airline's recent decision to charge for onboard pillows and blankets
(admittedly a popular move among the SmarterTravel.com crowd).

The list reaffirms what most of us have already concluded: When it
comes to fees, there's Southwest, and there's everyone else. Among
"everyone else," however, we find shades of gray in the form of
carriers that aren't quite as fee-happy as others. Southwest doesn't
fly everywhere (yet), so we will sometimes be left to choose the
lesser of two (or more) evils.

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