• About us
• Who's here
• Contact us

c o l u m n s

• Elliott
• Frenaye
• Leocha
• Riley
• Wysong
• Widzer

s u b s c r i b e

• Elliott's E-Mail, a free weekly newsletter, is your insider resource for moneysaving ideas.

First name

Last name

E-mail address

Subscribe
Cancel

• Read back issues. Like what you see? Now you can become an underwriter.

a l s o

• Referring sites
• Public relations
• Visit Tripso
• Home


s e a r c h

• Find a story.



s i t e s

• Elliott
• Not2Far
• Ticked
• Travelcomment
• Travel Notes
• Triprights

(c) Elliott Publishing.

A Final Word on Fees
Charles Leocha · September 13, 2004

My last column on Northwest Airlines' new ticketing fees accused the airline of committing corporate suicide. But the column made some readers so mad that they wanted me to drop dead.

Among the flames were missives insisting the Northwest consumer Web site was excellent and easy to use. Other readers claimed I am a "flunky in Econ 101."

Let me clarify my comment regarding Northwest's "clunky, inefficient, isolated and "inferior" in-house Web sites."

The column was written before Northwest backtracked on charging the $7.50 per round-trip ticket travel agency fee that would have applied to online agencies such as Travelocity, Expedia and Orbitz as well as the travel agency reservation systems such as Sabre, Worldspan and Galileo.

My reference was mainly to the Northwest WorldAgent Direct Web site which a majority of travel agencies abhor and which AAA described as "inferior."

Hopefully, my voice was one of many which squelched that ill-advised travel agency fee.

Regarding the Northwest consumer Web site: No matter what Northwest does to its site, it still will not give its consumers a choice between its flights and competing flights on other airlines. Hence, my term isolated.

Even travelers who defended the Northwest Web site as "fast" and "easy-to-use," admitted that they, "...will usually go to Orbitz first for a global view of the city pair ... maybe even to one or two of the airline sites not readily available on Orbitz; but in the end if NWA meets my needs best, I switch to the NWA site to do the booking..."

That is exactly my point.

The initially-announced Northwest fee structure would have added a $7.50 charge for any bookings done on Orbitz or similar online travel agencies.

Heck, even I click back to the airline sites to avoid the additional fees charged by Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia and their ilk these days.

That said, the actions of Northwest and, now, several other carriers to charge an extra fee for anyone making reservations by phone or at the airline ticket counter still doesn't make any sense from the consumer service point of view.

Therefore, it should make no sense from the airlines' point of view since they are, theoretically, in the service business.

The airlines are making some exceptions to the fees. According to MSNBC, "American said it would waive the fee for elite members of its frequent-flier program, on military bereavement fares and for speakers of some foreign languages who don't have a full range of ticketing options."

This of course begs many questions. What are the exceptions to these new fees? Which languages qualify for having the fees waived? Are senior fares exempted since they cannot be booked online? What about infant fares? What about customers with disabilities? What about Macintosh computer users who are shut out of some online ticketing options?

I searched for exceptions to the new fees on the AA.com and NWA.com sites and never found anything that clearly explained any exceptions.

In terms of my economics education, I understand that airlines need to cover "overhead" and strive towards "positive cash flow." This Econ 101 flunky thinks that the positive cash flow should come from airline operational reality together with fair, understandable airfares.

Southwest makes a profit. JetBlue makes a profit. AirTran makes a profit. All without charging us extra to purchase tickets over the phone or at the airport.

If the rest of the major airlines follow the trail being blazed by Northwest and American Airlines, then the fare differential between them and the low-cost airlines will only be magnified.

I called the Northwest reservations number, (800) 225-2525 and received a nice recording that informed me that should I decide to purchase a ticket after speaking with the representative, I would be charged a $5 service fee.

The perfect solution, for us, is to call. Get help. Write down the flight numbers and airport information. Then go back to the Web site and make your reservation. That way you can get the best of both worlds-personalized help and no fees.

Charles Leocha is a commentator based in Boston.