fees - Travel Deals

Now that the airlines have parsed out all sorts of little fees they used to bundle in the price of an airline ticket, it’s more difficult to figure out the actual cost of travel. You hunt for cheap airfare, you think you find a killer deal on one of the airfare booking sites, and then the additional fees start piling up.

Some of the fees come instantly in the form of taxes and charges before you can even hit the “buy” button on your purchase. But others are more sneaky, showing up when you decide to check a bag or if you should get hungry or cold or bored during your flight.

If the price of an airline ticket is super cheap these days and the additional fees don’t add up to much, in theory that’s fine – but if you aren’t aware of all the additional charges and they add up to make it so that “great deal” on a ticket isn’t such a great deal after all, that’s a pain.

The airfare booking sites won’t tell you about all the little fees when you’re making your purchase – partly to make their prices on tickets seem lower, and partly because the charges change frequently and it would be hard to keep up to date. That means you’ve got to do a bit of homework before your trip to find out how much that ticket will really end up costing you. Here are some articles to help you do just that.

It’s unlikely that you bring a pet with you every single time you fly, but when you do want to bring your furry friends on your next flight you’ll definitely want to know how much it costs before you get to the airport. Of course, you have to make arrangements with the airlines well in advance in order to fly with your pet – either in the cabin or as checked luggage – but you know what we mean…

The airline fees for flying with a pet vary quite a bit from airline to airline, and can vary depending on whether you bring the pet with you in the cabin (under the seat in front of you) or plan to check the pet carrier.

The list below of fees for flying with pets is a starting point for you, but please be sure to check with the airline you’re flying with to find out whether the fees have changed. It’s a significant enough amount of money in most cases that it could be a reason to switch airlines.

The airline fees most of us are aware of these days are for checked bags – but there are other fees piling up on everything from meals to pillows. Of course any of the fees for things on board the plane aren’t quoted when you’re browsing for cheap flights – which means you feel ripped off when you think you get a great deal and only later find out that you’ll have to pay extra for beverages, a hot meal, a movie, a pillow, etc.

On board airline fees change with some frequency, so it’s impossible to create a list here that won’t potentially be out of date within a few months. You can use this information as a reference point, however, and should always check with the airlines directly to find out what their current fees are. They don’t make it easy to locate this information on their websites, but it’s worth hunting for before you get too excited about a great fare.