Airline Fee “Transparency”

I just booked tickets to visit a friend in the suburbs of Paris for a week. The airfare wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad. And Continental tried to be upfront about where all of the charges were going, which I appreciated. However, when I saw the final tally of where my $800 was going, I was shocked. I’ve highlighted in orange the most shocking part – Check it out… this is copied directly from my e-ticket:

Not only were the additional fees almost 2x the actual fare, they tossed in a disclaimer at the end that let me know we could be randomly charged for things not listed in the fare rules. While I’m pretty sure that won’t happen, it seems like insult to injury.

Is it actually helping the airlines’ brand image to tell us where all of the extra money is going? On one hand, it’s probably helpful for them to be able to say “it’s not us asking for this money, it’s the government.” But on the other hand, the reality is that the largest extra fee is the fuel surcharge, which is paid to the airline. Why don’t they just adjust their fares to incorporate this? Why are fuel rates pegged back in the 1980s and only surcharges have been adjusted since? It makes me feel a little lied to to hear that my fare is only $292, when the reality is I’m paying Continental $712. The pass through fees to the governments are “only” $129.16.

At Fleet, we are regulated the same as the airlines, even though we are on-demand. Our training programs are the same and if we had aircraft that were above the weight threshold, we’d be charging tax as well. We also have to deal with the volatility of fuel prices and have had to make the difficult decision to adopt a fuel surcharge. But we never use the fuel surcharge to profit. It is a straight pass-through, calculated by an equation we publish on our website. Furthermore, we adjust our rates once a year to accommodate rises in fuel prices, to keep the fuel surcharges as low as possible. We believe predictability in pricing breeds trust. We would never try to be sneaky and gouge you with sneaky extras after you’ve agreed to the flying rate.

Flying Fleet is a no hassle experience. We don’t just mean skipping the headaches of TSA security and crowded airports. We mean it in everything we do – even in how we price our flights. Try us today and experience why when you want to Fly Smart, you should Fly Fleet.