The New Airline "Gotchas": A Round-Up of Fees and Regulations

Cash-strapped airlines tighten their belts, revamp regulations, and test how much nickel-and-diming we can take.

ARTHUR FROMMER'S BUDGET TRAVEL - September 9, 2002

A flurry of airline press releases have splattered across the newspapers in the past two weeks, warning of changes to company regulations and enforcement of policies that most airlines had previously let slide. Suddenly paper ticket fees have become the norm, flying standby may become a distant memory, there's a crack-down on baggage limits and back-to-back ticketing, and one airline (US Airways) has even put a cork in the free booze on those long transatlantic flights.

SOME OF THIS NEWS is just hype, some of it will prove frustrating to travelers, and some of it is much ado about very little indeed. To help you avoid the new fees and financial pitfalls, here's a rundown of the latest "gotchas" from the six major airlines, and which of these newly announced regulations will actually have any bearing on our experience at the airport.

Editor Reid Bramblett answers your questions on European vacations. Submit your questions now!

BATTENING DOWN THE HATCHES

As Americans continue to steer clear of the skies during these economic doldrums and post-September 11 fears, US Airways has slid into Chapter 11, United is teetering on the brink, and the other major airlines are frantically trying to avoid the same fate. All six big airlines have been hard hit and are desperately looking for ways to cut costs as they go begging for federal bail-out loans.

Their first move after September 11, 2001 hit their bottom lines hard was to lay off staff-some 85,000 by the middle of October 2001. While some of those employees were temporarily rehired for the busy summer season in 2002, most of them are being shown the door yet again.

In the wake of September 11, 2001, some airlines cut as much as 30% of their flights, and few of those have made it back onto the flight boards since. Now, they're tightening that belt another notch. US Airways is cutting 13% of its flights (by thinning, rather than eliminating, routes), Continental will be axing 17%, and United, American, and Northwest are each lopping off between 9% and 13%.

Many of these new regulations are only applied if you have a "nonrefundable ticket." That's airline-speak for the cheap seats, commonly called "coach" because that sounds better than "and just where are my knees supposed to go, hmm?"

These die-hard competitors have even started broaching yet again the idea of code-sharing on each other's flights. If the various unions and the monopoly-suspicious U.S. Department of Transportation approve the plans, US Airways and United would snuggle up together, while Delta, Continental, and Northwest would form their own mega-alliance.

Such slash and burn policies can only take the airlines so far in reviving profits. Now they're rolling up their sleeves and starting to shave operational costs which, in some instances, are going to hit passengers right in the pocketbook.

Many of these new regs are only applied if you have a "nonrefundable ticket." That's airline-speak for the cheap seats, what they refer to as "discount fares" and are commonly called "coach" because that sounds better than "and just where are my knees supposed to go, hmm?"

Passengers flying Business, First, and in other classes who get to sit on the other side of that little Curtain of Social Standing near the front of the plane will be unaffected. Also, often they apply no matter if you buy the tickets through the airline itself or through a consolidator, travel agent, or as part of a package or tour (though this is more true of domestic flights than international ones).

PAYING FOR PAPER TICKETS

Opting to carry a paper ticket when an e-ticket is available will now cost you $20 on Delta, American, Continental, or United, and $25 on Northwest or US Airways.

E-tickets are usually available on flights between most major domestic airports, and increasingly even international ones, though if a transfer to some partner airline is involved only paper tickets will do.


United has been so bold as to announce that they plan to eliminate paper tickets on these routes entirely by July 2003 (and hope to do it for all routes by 2004). No other airline will confirm similar plans, but surely they're all contemplating a ticket-free universe.

Though an e-ticket provides you with some sort of reference or confirmation number, to check in at the airport all you usually need is a picture ID (a driver's license or equivalent for domestic travel-you'll already have your passport for international). However, it's wise to bring a print-out of the purchase screen or a confirmation email that includes the e-ticket reference number and other information with you to the airport in case you need proof. You should also always bring the credit card (and the cardholder, if it isn't yourself) used to purchase the ticket, as they can insist on verifying it.

Debating the merits and drawbacks to e-tickets over paper tickets is a whole discussion in of itself, but here are a few considerations to help you decide whether plumping for that paper ticket is worth the twenty bucks.

E-tickets are, of course, terribly convenient, if for no other reason than there's nothing for you to lose, have stolen, or quite simply lug around with you having to worrying about it. I, for one, am sick of spending weeks at a time traveling abroad with 1/8 inch of thin cardboard sheets jammed into a money belt along with my passport and credit cards. Even more brilliantly, on some airlines an e-ticket can let you can bypass the long lines by checking yourself in at an ATM-like kiosk at an increasing number of major airports.

However, E-tickets also make it virtually impossible for you to pull off the back-to-back trick (see below) as the airline can more easily track you. Buying an e-ticket for someone else can be dicey unless you're flying with them, or at least can accompany them to the airport, since the airlines require (though they don't always insist) that you show the credit card used to purchase the ticket when you check in.

You should also be wary of e-tickets when traveling to foreign destinations (not so much Europe, but elsewhere), as oftentimes the foreign government will ask to see proof at passport control that you have a returning or ongoing ticket. If you can't produce that actual ticket, you can't enter the country.

PACK LIGHT…OR ELSE

Truth is, there have always been limits on the number, size, and weight of the luggage we can take with us. It's just that, aside from stopping passengers attempting to board with four carry-on bags each large enough to fit a baby moose, the airlines have rarely bothered enforcing the rules.

Well, the gravy train for compulsive over-packers is coming to an end. So far only Continental and Northwest have actually announced that they'll be cracking down on bevies of behemoth bags, but fair warning that all airlines are growing more inclined to slap on overage fees.

The regulations are pretty much the same for every carrier. You're allowed two checked bags, each weighing less than 70 pounds and measuring 62 total inches (length plus width plus height; bicycle boxes sold by the airlines are exempt). You also get one carry-on bag, measuring 45 total inches and weighing less than 40 pounds (United ups the hernia possibilities with a 50-pound limit). In addition to your carry-on, they let you take on a purse, briefcase, computer case, or duty-free bag.

The fees for overage are also pretty standard across airlines: $80 per piece for the first three additional pieces of checked luggage, $105 per suitcase for numbers four to six, and $180 per bag for seven or more beyond the limit. (Delta charges only $40 for the first extra bag, then falls into step with the other prices.)

All airlines charge $80 each for bags larger than those 62 inches, or which weigh more than 70 pounds (over 100 pounds or over 115 inches, and they make you ship it cargo). Bag both too big and too heavy? That'll be $160, please.

View all this as an opportunity to learn the joys that come with packing light and loving it.

USE IT OR LOSE IT

This is the change that's been getting the most press, but amounts to the smallest issue. It started on August 27 when US Airways announced there would be no more "transfers of nonrefundable tickets" once you miss a flight. A few days later US Airways began wavering, hinting they might ditch the idea if no other airline followed suit. The others fell like dominoes over the following ten days, announcing they were on board with the idea, which will be implemented by most carriers starting October 1. So the new initiative seems to be becoming policy, but what does it mean?

Not a lot, really. Used to be, if you missed your plane you could still grab a later flight (or at least get put on standby) just by paying the standard change fee plus any difference in price between your unused ticket and the new flight. Actually, that was all quite swell of them, really, as there was no compelling reason other than customer satisfaction to let us do that, and one could easily argue that once you've missed the plane, that's it. Your seat has flown without you. Tough luck.

Well, now they're using that argument.

You miss your flight, you forfeited the entire value of that ticket. If you want to get on a later flight, you'll have to buy a whole new ticket (and walk-up fares are the priciest there are).

There are some caveats: except for US Airways, none of them leave you totally high and dry. If you miss the flight but still manage to make it to the airport, you can still fly standby on the next available flight that day (after the last flight of the day, the ticket become useless).

Continental, American, and United give you a two hour window after you've missed your flight in which to sign up for this deal; Delta and Northwest don't specify a time frame, but you have to be there in order to get on that next available flight.

With Continental there's no additional charge to do this. American, United, and Delta will charge you a $100 fee. Northwest also charges you the $100 change fee, plus any difference in fare.

None of this applies to "involuntary changes" in your itinerary, which means if you're merely late for a connecting flight because your first flight on the same carrier (or a partner) was delayed for weather, mechanical difficulties, strike, etc., you're put on the next flight standby with no fee. Of course, if your late flight was on a rival carrier, the new rules do apply.

THE PRICE OF FLYING STANDBY

Starting January 1, 2003, United, US Airways, American, Continental, and Delta will try to cut down on standby activity as well, not by eliminating it entirely but by charging you a whopping $100 if you want to wait for a standby seat.

Another chestnut from the budget traveler's bag of tricks may be going to way of fond anecdote: flying standby. You know, you buy a ticket for a flight at some ungodly hour to get the cheapest fare, then show up chipper at the airport and try to finagle your way onto a better flight "standby."

Well, not any longer.

Starting January 1, 2003, United, American, Continental, US Airways and Delta will try to cut down on standby activity, not by eliminating it entirely but by charging you a whopping $100 if you want to wait for a standby seat. (On Continental this new standby fee doesn't apply to the "transfer of non-refundable tickets" scenario described above.)

Originally, US Airways had tried to get rid stand-by passengers altogether by announcing that tickets would lose their value for any flight except the flight listed on the ticket. After being barraged by angry e-mails, the airline reversed itself, quietly instituting the $100 stand-by fee late Friday for travel beginning Jan. 1. However, those who bought their tickets after Aug. 26 for travel before Jan. 1 are going to fall between the cracks. The new rules were loaded into US Airway's system on that date and not taken out until September 6, so there's no stand-by available for those unlucky flyers. They will have to pay for entirely new tickets should they try to "stand-by" for an earlier flight.

CRACKING DOWN ON BACK-TO-BACK

For various complicated reasons, a one-way ticket is insanely more expensive than half the price of a round-trip one. People who need to fly just one way have long gotten around this by simply purchasing a round-trip flight, flying the one leg, then chucking the other half of the ticket.

Another variant on this strategy is to avoid a hugely expensive midweek ticket fare by buying two of the much cheaper Saturday-stay-required tickets on back-to-back weekends then using the inbound leg of one and the outbound of the other.

The third variant is using a long-haul flight to somewhere you don't want that happens to connect in the city you do want but to which the direct flight costs a lot more (for example, getting to Chicago by hopping a New York-to-L.A. flight that has a plane change at O'Hare and simply walking out of the airport in the Windy City). This only works if you don't check luggage, and you usually can't get the return leg home because your absence in California will have been noticed and the airline will have cancelled the rest of your ticket.

All of these tricks are perfectly legal, yet are also utterly against every major airline's policy, and they get quite cross when they discover people doing it. They'll either cancel the rest of your trip, or more frequently charge you the difference between what you paid and what they feel you owe them (they call this a "Debit memo").

United and US Airways have both gone so far as to announce they're cracking down on this. The others have made no specific pronouncements, though Delta still "strongly discourages" these activities, Continental still "frowns upon it," and the rest otherwise confirm that it continues to be against their policies.

It used to be you had more luck pulling off one of these tricks if a travel agent helped arrange the flights, but several airlines have recently warned the agencies that they'll be held responsible as well; so hiding behind a travel agent smokescreen may no longer be an option.

by Reid Bramblett