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Airlines can be expected to become increasingly creative in the future in coming up with new fees to tag onto the cheap fares, whether cheap airplane tickets or cheap vacation packages. Future fliers need to be aware of the latest airline fees and plan accordingly to keep the total cost of their trips affordable. The following are some airline fees that may be introduced in 2011: • Fees to carry an infant in a traveler’s laps may be introduced. Europe’s Ryanair Airline charges about $30 each way for lap children. • Airlines may start charging a fee to each passenger who checks in with a live representative at the airport. Soon passengers will be weighing and measuring their bags at home, calculating and paying any fees online before arriving at the airport, printing out boarding passes at home or from an airport kiosk, and finally dropping any bags off with bag check staff at a conveyor belt. Travelers not wanting to do any of these tasks can eventually expect to pay a “live person” check-in fee. • Fees may be charged to passengers using credit cards to purchase airline tickets. Airlines in other countries already are charging a fee for purchases not paid for in cash. Theoretically such charges offset the cost credit card companies charge airlines to process passenger transactions. Most likely customers using an airline-affiliated credit card will be exempt from this fee. • Charging bag fees by the pound could result in heavy bags costing more than passenger tickets. Many foreign airlines already charge a set fee for luggage weighing up to a certain limit and then charge by the pound or kilogram for anything weighing more. • Name changes may be allowed for a price. Travelers would probably welcome this change if the fee is reasonable. • Carry-on luggage fees were instituted by Spirit last year for all carry-ons that do not fit under the seat in front. You can bet other airlines will be watching closely to see if the fee is accepted by customers and does not hurt Spirit’s sales. • Price lock-in fees were introduced by Continental late last year. For a price, customers are able to lock in a fare for three or seven days. Depending on how popular this feature becomes other airlines may follow suit. • Internet “convenience fees” could be headed our way. Ryanair charges 4 Euros per passenger each way supposedly to offset the costs of its booking system. Allegiant Airlines already is changing an online booking fee of $14.99. The only safe bet is that airlines will come up with at least one fee, if not several, in 2011 not mentioned above. www.cheapfares.com
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