On the road: Travel fees rise, airlines improve comfort

DOLLAR WATCH: Surprise! Travel Fees Keep Rising

Frontier Airlines has been busy on the fee front. It has raised its first checked bag fee to $20 and its second checked bag fee to $30. It also lowered some of its ticket-change fees. The supposedly fee-free carrier, Southwest Airlines, has invented an optional new charge. For $10, you can get so-called Early Bird Check-In, which will get you a spot on the boarding line behind Business Select and A-List customers. business_travel

Fees on frequent-travel miles and points are rising as well. Effective December 21, National says it will charge renters 75 cents a day (up from the current 50 cents) if they choose to collect airline miles on their rentals. And American Express has raised the fee for converting Membership Rewards points into frequent flyer miles. The so-called “excise tax offset” charge is now .0006 per point with a maximum of $99 a transaction. That’s up from .0005 cents and $75.

United Airlines continues to find new ways to sell the perks most other carriers offer only to their elite flyers. The Premier Travel plan sells a package of extras–Economy Plus seats, priority line access, admittance to the Red Carpet Club–on a flight-by-flight basis. Prices start at $47 a flight.

GOOD NEWS: Some Roomier Seats in These Gloomier Times

It’s not all gloom and doom up there. At least on some routes, some carriers are ratcheting up the comfort:

US Airways, for example, has announced a long-overdue upgrade to its international business-class product. The airline says that it will introduce fully lie-flat beds beginning in December. The so-called Envoy Suite will offer chairs that convert to beds that are 20.5 inches wide (plus five more inches with the armrests down) and 76 to 80 inches long. The chairs will be arranged in a 1-2-1 configuration and will be equipped with a standard power outlet, a USB port and 12-inch monitors.

KLM is adding an upgraded coach cabin on its intercontinental aircraft. The so-called Economy Comfort Zone will offer chairs with four additional inches oflegroom and greater recline. The premium for seating in the new section at the front of the aircraft will range from $112 to $210 one-way. At least one KLM plane already has the service and the remaining aircraft should be done by December. Finally, American Airlines says it will add a “competitive” first-class cabin on most of its 25 CRJ-700 regional jets and will move them to its Chicago/O’Hare hub.

Related Orbitz resources:

Tagged: Uncategorized