Browsing Tag: Fees

A Bunch of United Boeing 777 Tails at London Heathrow Airport.

A Bunch of United Boeing 777 Tails at London Heathrow Airport.

For those that have trouble fitting into a standard passenger seat, they will have to prepare to pay double on United Airlines.  They have pretty black and white criteria for those to meet this requirement:

– Unable to fit into a single seat in the ticketed cabin

– Unable to properly buckle the seatbelt using a single seatbelt extender

– Unable to put the seat’s armrests down when seated

A passenger falling under any of these criteria will be relocated or be forced to upgrade to first class or be booted to the next flight.

Of course this is humiliating to those who are in this bracket and no one of course wants that, but it seems to be the only fair solution instead of having to be a full paying passenger and only having half a seat due to someone who is a bit larger next to you.

Ryanair is a little less Politically Correct about the matter and about 1/3 of 100,000 people that voted on their website for “cost-reduction ideas” wanted to impose a “fat tax” for those who can’t fit into a seat.

Source: Pacific Business News & News.com.au Image: matt.hintsa
How big of a shirt do we need to show all the fees we pay too?

How big of a shirt do we need to show all the fees we pay too?

There are some pretty crazy fees for airlines now-a-days. From checking a bag, to getting a pillow. But these are some of the weirdest (and some dumbest) ones I have seen.

  • Spirit Airlines was charging a $2.50 “natural occurrence interruption fee” to try to re-capture losses from weather. They also had an $8.50 “international service recovery fee” meant to get money for having international destinations. The US DOT  gave them a $40,000.00 fine and made them take down the non-advertised fees.
  • Allegiant Air charges a “convenience fee” of $13.50 for getting a ticket on their website. Which goes against the industry standard now of charging people to NOT book on the website.
  • Ryaair charges about $7 per passenger for a “payment handling fee” no matter how you end up booking the ticket.
  • United charges a $349 flat annual fee for frequent flyers (and companion) to fly in the Economy Plus in the front of the plane whenever possible.
  • In the CRAZIEST fee I have seriously heard of (have always heard people joke about this), Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary says they are looking to charge for bathroom usage. “Eventually it’s going to happen. It’s just we can’t do it at the moment because we don’t have a mechanism for charging you,” he said. Although, mostly a well-crafted publicity stunt (yes, I know I am guilty of writing about it and furthering their agenda), but it shows that maybe someday, some airline will be silly enough to try this.
Sources: The Consumerist, ATW, and ABCNews Image: Marchorowitz