Hidden Airline Fees: Unfair and Illegal

A hidden fee is a fee that a customer does not see till the end of the buying process. These fees are often undisclosed or only stated in wordy fine print. For example, a fee is charged by the majority of domestic airlines today for booking tickets over the phone or in person, instead of booking the tickets online. When a customer goes to book their ticket with a ticket agent, they are not notified there will be a charge and only find out in the final purchasing process. United Airlines and American Airlines charge $30 to book a ticket in person or over the phone. Customers assume this service to be included with the ticket price. Charging this fee and other hidden fees like it mislead customers to the actual price of travel.

These hidden fees are numerous and common among the vast majority of domestic airlines. When reserving a ticket online, Spirit Airlines charges $10 for not estimating the correct weight bracket of carry-on luggage before coming to the airport. Allegiant Air charges $8.50 for booking a ticket online and $15 to book over the phone. It is free to book at the ticket office but the offices are not open regular business hours. According to Allegiant Air's website, the ticket office in Bellingham Washington is only open two hours a day, and closed on Tuesday and Saturday. In Fort Wayne, the ticket office is open two hours a day and only three days a week.

A mandatory fee is a fee for a service that is necessary for the average flier to travel. If a ticket is bought in advance, these fees are charged to the customer after the ticket is purchased. For example, the vast majority of airlines charge for booking carry-on luggage. This fee is charged at the airport, after customers have been charged for their basic airfare. This gives airlines leeway to charge travelers outrageous amounts. Delta, Northwest, United, Frontier, and American Airlines all charge up to $20 to check one bag. The next bag can cost up to $100 dollars and the third up to $250. When customers arrive at the airport they are informed and charged these fees. If they want to catch their flight they are forced to pay them. If they find them too unaffordable they will have to switch airlines and book a new flight. Airlines hold their customers' flights hostage in exchange for these fees. Mandatory fees trap customers into paying fees for things they need at unreasonable prices.

Mandatory fees are widespread across the domestic airline industry. The vast majority of airlines charge between $75 and $175 dollars extra for the ticket of an unaccompanied minor, even if the child is an experienced flier and does not require any extra assistance from staff. If a pet is brought into the cabin, despite if it is silent, caged, and fits on the passengers lap or under the seat comfortably, an extra fee at its lowest will be $69 for an Air Tran flight and highest on Air Canada; $270 extra on top of the basic airfare. Mandatory fees are not limited to the airport but also happen on the flight. U.S. Airways charges $2 simply for a glass of water. Ryanair's CEO Michael O'Leary said in an associated press conference on March 6^th, 2009 that his company was considering charging about $1.50 for use of in-cabin toilets, and had Boeing engineers working on the possibility of a bathroom door that only opens with the swipe of a credit card or coins inserted.

Hidden and mandatory fees mislead customers about the real price of travel and corner them into paying fees they were not aware of beforehand. An average traveler may find a plane ticket price at $175 dollars on the internet. If they'd rather call the ticket office to book the flight and also bring two pieces of luggage to check, their ticket may have already jumped to $240 dollars. If they refuse to pay the extra fees and decide to go to a different airline, unless they are changing within six hours, most airlines will charge a cancellation fee between $15 and $100. When shopping for tickets, customers only see the base ticket price. Domestic airline corporations are robbing their customers of the ability to make an informed decision on how much money they want to spend on air travel. The hidden and mandatory fees they are charging are unexpected and forced upon the customer.

When a consumer buys a product from a company, it is assumed that in exchange for the price of the product, the product will be functional and useable. For example, when you buy a meal at a restaurant, although the price on the menu only indicates the food and drink you are buying, it is assumed that a cup to drink out of and utensils to eat with are included in the price. Airline companies are charging fees, separate from the ticket price, for things the consumer necessitates. A survey conducted by "Accenture Magazine" found that just over half of experienced business travelers, as of 2006, still book their plane tickets over the phone or in person, and the less experienced a traveler is with the airline industry the more likely he or she will book their ticket in person or over the phone rather than online. The Bureau of Travel Statistics reported that in 2008, the average number of checked bags per passenger was 1.2 bags. Technically with just the plane ticket and none of the services from fees, a passenger could get from "point A to point B". However for the average traveler, in order for the plane ride to be functional and useable to them, they need to be able to check bags and speak with a representative of the airline when booking a ticket. In doing these things, they are forced to pay unexpected extra fees on top of the ticket price. Just as it would be unfair to charge separately for utensils at a restaurant, since the diners expect utensils, and need them to eat their meal, it is unethical to charge travelers with hidden fees for services they need in order to fly.

Not only are hidden and mandatory fees unethical towards consumers but also illegal. Bob Sullivan, in his book Gotcha Capitalism, called hidden fees the "fastest-growing white-collar crime in America," and "even bigger than identity theft". The United States federal law pertaining to false advertising states, "Any advertising or promotion that misrepresents the nature, characteristics, qualities or geographic origin of goods, services or commercial activities" (Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C.A. § 1125(a)). In order to prove false advertising in a federal court of law there must be five requirements met. The first is that a false statement of fact has been made about the advertiser's own or another person's goods, services, or commercial activity. By not explicitly stating the extra fees charged to consumers for necessary services, airline companies are falsely stating the cost of riding their planes. The second requirement is that the false statement either deceives or has the potential to deceive a substantial portion of its targeted audience. A survey prepared by Comscore reported that 80% of airline customers stated set up. Ticket prices the extra fees most airlines now impose on travelers for once-free amenities are misleading and unacceptable. Clearly a substantial portion of the airline industry's customers have been mislead to the true cost of plane travel by the ticket price advertised by the airline. The next criterion is that the deception imposed is also likely to affect the purchasing decisions of its audience. If customers were able to see the true total cost of travel on each flight on each airline, they would be able to make informed decisions on whether or not to be a plane ticket, from which airline to buy it from, and how far and how often there budget allows them to go. Since they are deceived by the gap in ticket prices and the total cost of travel including fees, they may make purchasing decisions based on false information advertised to them by the airline. The fourth condition necessitates the advertisement being about goods and services involved in interstate commerce, which the airline industry is involved in. Finally the fifth and most heavily weighed factor is whether or not the advertisement has the potential to cause monetary or bodily injury to the plaintiff. Not only do advertised ticket prices have the potential to cause monetary injury to their audience but they have been misleading customers and trapping them with fees since they were established by the airline industry.

The International Air Travel Association, among others, argue that with the many rising costs for air travel, airlines don't have a choice but to impose fees on there customers lest they go out of business. It is very true that the airline industry is suffering significant losses from a variety of resources becoming more expensive. Jet fuel is an extremely volatile market and price can waiver significantly in a matter of months. Being at the mercy of the changing jet fuel market, paired with high oil prices to begin with, cuts deeply into the profit margin of the airline industry. As well, the airline industry can experience strikes by their employees. The nature of the airline business makes even a one day strike extremely detrimental to business. When the pilots of American Airlines threatened to do simply small portioned strikes unless they were allowed a new contract, American Airlines were forced to give in or else risk there business halt significantly. The new contracts for pilots cost American Airlines about three billion dollars annually.

These costs may explain the implementation of so many hidden fees; however, they do not legally or ethically justify them. Misleading customers with hidden fees infringes on the rights of consumers just the same despite the intentions. If airlines need to raise their prices in order to stay in business, they need to do so in a way that is clear to their consumer.

The International Air Travel Association also argues that a liberalized airline industry with the least regulations possible will lead to competition for travelers' business and the best and most ethical service policies to customers will ensue. In theory the IATA's point makes sense. However, once the implementation of hidden fees began to become a trend across the airline industry, they achieved a monopoly like position. Monopolies negate the free market competition system by not giving consumers a choice and thus not giving companies incentive to meet their demands. In this specific situation, the free market theory failed, and only made consumer's rights more infringed upon. In order to attract more travelers than other businesses, airlines have kept their ticket prices as low as possible and compensated with hidden fees. As competition continues and expenses rise for the airline industry, the competition has simply moved into the arena of hidden fees, rather than more ethical advertisement of prices to customers. Hidden fees have steadily become more common, applied to more services, become more expensive, and are predicted to continue.

The airline industry must be under heavier regulation and scrutiny from the federal government. As modernization and globalization advance further into society, air travel is becoming more of a necessity for a larger portion of the American population. More and more Americans are being taken advantage of by the airline industry. Competition is keeping the hidden fees present in the airline corporations and more and more consumers are being abused by them. The only way to break the cycle is for the government to enforce regulations banning misleading hidden fees across the airline industry.

Once they are banned there are two different options airlines can choose to compensate their lack of revenue from hidden fees. The first is to eliminate the hidden fees and simply add the cost the services the fees charged for to the main ticket price. This way, consumers are given an accurate cost of their travel expenses. Airline corporations can compete for their travelers business in a healthy fashion by working towards the best service and the lowest price. The minority of consumers who did not use the services previously charged through hidden fees can receive a discount for not checking a bag and other similar services.

The second approach has come to be called the "a la carte" method. This method is advocated by the Department of Transportation and seeks to simply make the hidden fees, "unhidden" to consumers. The "a la carte" method involves a new pricing system where the basic ticket is not meant to be the main price of travel. Airlines would openly advertise their separate fees for different services in a way that makes clear to travelers that the ticket is not the vast bulk of the cost of airfare as it was before. Consumers would book a ticket and "order a la carte" the different services they would need. This way, unlike the method of adding the charges to the basic ticket price, the charges better encompass the needs of each individual consumer. Also, this method would not require airlines to drastically raise their advertised ticket prices and risk scaring consumers into saving their money. Unlike hidden fees that trap consumers into paying extra fees and mislead them to the real cost of air travel, these methods allow customers to make informed decisions when they enter the airline industries market and thus promote innovative healthy competition between airline corporations.