4 ms·
Airlines (in the US, mostly) are incentivized to add these fees for two major reasons: 1. Fees are exempt from the 7.5% federal excise tax on airfare. 2. It ma
by rchowe 9y ago
Airlines (in the US, mostly) are incentivized to add these fees for two major reasons:
1. Fees are exempt from the 7.5% federal excise tax on airfare.
2. It makes the initial fare lower on airfare sites like Kayak, for people who choose the cheapest route, then they up-sell customers once they've decided.
- dheera 9y agoEvery so often a flight aggregator (Kayak, Expedia, etc.) shows up. To date precisely none of them have solved the REAL customer pain point: show the actual price I will pay. I really wish restaurants and everywhere else would include taxes in their prices too. I frankly don't care what fraction of my money is going to the government, all I care is (a) what I pay in total and (b) what I'm getting.
- rchowe 9y agoThe real trick with an aggregator would be to say what you want (e.g. I want a carry-on bag, but I don't care where I sit or about in-flight food) and it spits out a list of total-cost airfares with those features. It would probably still skew towards the low-cost carriers where everything is a la carte, but at least people wouldn't be surprised by the total cost.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- hkjayakumar 9y agoITA's Matrix[1] shows the actual price, but rumours are that Google will shut them down in the near future in favour of Google Flights following their shutdown of the QPX Express API[2] [1] http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15594975 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15594975
- jptman 9y agoThose two have nothing to do with each other. Someone in that thread purely speculated and now there are 'rumors'.
- hkjayakumar 9y agoYou're right, I was completely unaware of that. I read these 'rumours' on other forums as well, but I didn't bother to verify them.
- rahimnathwani 9y ago"I really wish restaurants and everywhere else would include taxes in their prices too." Easy. Move to the UK, or China, or Germany, or ...
- kbart 9y agoEU mandates to show real price (including taxes)[0][1]. From my personal experience, it works with all major EU-based airlines when booking online. Of course, if you want extra (travel insurance, priority, luggage etc.) you pay separately (opt-in), but it's nothing like it was ~10 years ago when you had to play hide&seek with all these hidden taxes and opt-out extras during the booking process. 0. https://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2015/january/flight-booking-systems-must-display-final-price-at-first-instance-rules-eu-court/ https://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2015/january/flight-book... 1. http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/pricing-payments/index_en.htm http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/pric...
- danmaz74 9y agoYes, this is one space where regulation has really helped, even if sometimes you still find that the actual price is a bit different from the one you expected.
- Scoundreller 9y ago> Fees are exempt from the 7.5% federal excise tax on airfare Ah, just like pre... 2014? Ebay, where S&H fees were exempt from final value fees. I recall selling games for 1 cent, buy it now, but with $5 shipping, so my listing would be practically free. Ebay has smarted up in a lot of ways. One day the feds will too. Then buyers would get angry, but really, it was to cut-out Ebay, not confuse them. I would even put the shipping cost in the title to be absolutely clear.