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A12 BUSINESS
Friday 25 November 2022
Why booking directly with airlines can

be more expensive

By SAM KEMMIS
of NerdWallet
Early in the pandemic,
many travelers experi-
enced headaches while
trying to rebook air travel
purchased through third
parties such as Orbitz and
Kayak. Overloaded cus-
tomer service centers and
constantly changing airline
policies resulted in a big
mess at these agencies,
prompting many travelers
to book directly through
the airline to avoid future Travelers use kiosk to check their bags as they arrive to travel
issues.Yet as the dust settles out of Dallas/Fort Worth International airport Tuesday, Nov. 22,
on the pandemic and trav- 2022, in Grapevine, Texas.
el begins to return to nor- Associated Press
mal, air passengers are ex-
periencing a different reali- Frontier, U.S. airlines have MISMATCHED PRIORITIES
ty: Booking directly through dramatically shifted how Airlines want customers to
airlines involves navigating they make money. Rather book through their own
a maze of fees, add-on than earning profit margin websites and apps for a
offers and confusing seat on airfare itself, which is simple reason: They tend
selection choices. The re- highly competitive, airlines to spend more money on
sulting price at checkout is are increasingly focused ancillary fees. In a Security
often higher much higher on “ancillary revenue” and Exchange Commis-
than the advertised price. from add-on fees, credit sion filing, American Air-
The issue has become so card rewards programs lines made this preference
problematic that even and seat upgrades. clear, citing its depen-
President Biden has joined Between 2019 and 2021, dence on third parties such
the fray. “You should know ancillary fees as a percent- as online travel agencies
the full cost of your ticket, age of total revenue for as a potential risk factor.
right when you’re compari- major U.S. airlines jumped “We are also dependent
son shopping ,” he said in six percentage points, from upon the ability and will-
a press conference an- 16.1% to 22.2% , according ingness of these distribution
nouncing a new Depart- to a report by IdeaWorks- channelsto expand their
ment of Transportation ini- Company, an airline indus- ability to distribute and
tiative to force airlines to try reporting firm. That fol- collect revenues for ancil-
disclose these fees. “So you lows a steady drumbeat of lary products (e.g., fees for
can pick the ticket that is increased fee revenue go- selective seating),” the fil-
actually the best deal for ing back to at least 2007. ing read. Basically, Ameri-
you.” Efforts to rein in air- The upshot for custom- can Airlines admits that it
line fees are nothing new. ers: Saving money on air makes a lot of money from
The Obama administration travel depends less on the ancillary fees, and is wor-
tried and failed to enact base cost of the ticket itself ried that third-party sell-
similar regulations. And un- and more on the add-ons ers won’t push these fees
til meaningful changes are avoided while checking as aggressively as it does.
made, airline customers out. Some of these add- And this mismatch is exact-
will be the ones footing the ons, such as fees for car- ly what provides an oppor-
bill, especially if they use ry-on bags, are relatively tunity for savvy customers.
the airlines’ own websites simple to avoid, while oth- Third-party services have
and apps to make their ers, such as the difference an incentive to clarify
purchases. between basic economy rather than obscure these
THE FEE ERA and regular economy (or choices for customers, ex-
Since the rise of budget “main cabin”), can be far plained Melanie Fis h, a
airlines such as Spirit and more complex decisions. spokesperson for Expedia,
a third-party travel book-
ing platform.
“When shopping for flights
in the app, travelers can
select a fare and see
what’s included by the air-
line in the ticket price, such
as seat selection, cancel-
lations or changes, as well
as the cost for checked
baggage, if applicable,”
Fish said by email. q