COMPARE FARES, EXTRAS AND ALL
New websites aim to give you the whole picture
You’re planning your vacation. You’re scanning for the best fare.
But there’s more to a trip’s cost than the ticket price. What if you’re checking bags, or the kids want an in-flight snack? What about Wi-Fi? How much is the final tab?
Finding those answers, and the best deal among several airlines, is not so easy.
Now, some consumer websites aim to help passengers figure out what it will cost for all those extras and which carrier may be easier on the flier’s wallet.
“Ultimately, what we’re trying to do is allow people to do more comparison shopping, on a more level basis,” says Patrick Surry, chief data scientist for the trip planning website Hopper.
This summer, Hopper (Hopper.com) launched a free online calculator that adds various selected fees to the basic ticket price, then allows the passenger to compare the trip’s overall cost among airlines.
“It’s hard to get an overview of what’s the best airline (to) pick when it comes to total cost of travel,” he says. “You have no idea how much it’s going to cost, and the prices change all the time.”
Airlines have been increasingly teasing apart the travel experience, implementing à la carte pricing for various services and perks. And some consumer advocates complain that carriers have made it difficult for passengers to get a clear picture of those charges and how they may vary from airline to airline, making complete information available only at a carrier’s specific site and offering a range of prices rather than specifics.
“There’s a lot of clicking you have to do” on each airline’s website, says Charlie Leocha, chairman of Travelers United, an advocacy organization. “They want to eliminate the ability for consumers to compare prices, because there’s no way they can really compare prices until they’ve worked through the whole scenario on an airline’s website.”
On Aug. 18, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said he was asking the 10 top revenue-producing carriers to detail their fees in several categories.
“In order to effectively comparison-shop, consumers need clear information about specific costs of various fees that may be added to the base fare,” Rockefeller wrote in a letter sent to the airlines, including United, Delta, American and Southwest.
Some federal action already has been taken on how clear airlines should be when it comes to quoting prices.
In 2012, the Department of Transportation implemented a rule requiring carriers to include government taxes and government-imposed fees in the advertised ticket price as opposed to listing those charges separately. Airlines also had to be more upfront about the fees passengers could incur for checking a bag.
In May, the department proposed more changes, including requiring carriers and ticket agents to reveal fees at all points of sale for checked and carry-on bags and for advance seat assignments.
However, Congress has been
“Ultimately, what we’re trying to do is allow people to do more comparison shopping, on a more level basis.”
Patrick Surry, chief data scientist for the trip planning website Hopper
considering legislation, introduced in March, that would essentially reverse the Transportation Department’s rule, separately noting government fees and taxes from the stated airline fare.
While those measures deal with the question of taxes and government-imposed fees, they don’t touch on the plethora of extra charges that have contributed billions to airline coffers.
With Hopper’s online calculator, passengers can choose a route and input fees they might incur, such as checked bags, carrying on a pet or getting a seat with more leg room. After adding those fees to the ticket price, the site will then list the overall cost on various airlines.
“The fee piece of it is a key component, because the ticket price you pay is not what you’re going to ultimately pay for your trip,” Surry says.
There are other sites that do not do the math for fliers but provide comprehensive lists of the fees airlines charge.
Smarter Travel’s guide informs fliers about a range of charges, including those for transactions ranging from changing a reservation to booking a trip over the phone to getting a pillow.
AirfareWatchdog.com also has a fee chart. And founder George Hobica says such listings may be the best option for now.
“There is no comprehensive, automatic fare-plus-fee calculator that will tell consumers what the final cost of their ticket will be,” Hobica says. “So charts are the next best thing.”
Even the Hopper calculator “doesn’t know enough about the passenger to be totally accurate,” Hobica says, noting that complications like co-branded airline cards or frequent-flier statuses affect what fees you may or may not be charged.
“What I’d like to see is an airfare site that asked you what airline credit cards you have that might exempt you from bag fees,” he says. “Whether you’re flying on military orders, how heavy your checked bag is. And so on.”