Newsstand - US Airlines Ratchet Up Holiday Surcharges

DALLAS – If you plan to travel around the upcoming holidays, prepare to pay a little more — again.

Several of the largest U.S. airlines have increased a surcharge for travel on the busiest travel days to $20 each way, up from $10.

The surcharges apply to a large number of flights within the U.S. on more than a dozen peak days around holidays including Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's.

Delta, American, United, US Airways and Northwest all boosted their surcharge on some routes, said Tom Parsons, who runs the discount travel site Bestfares.com.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20091102/ap_tr_ge/us_travel_brief_holiday_fares;_ylt=AoLpcv2oaAt_Je7 wyPj5QEE8sM0F;_ylu=X3oDMTM1NHJiNDA2BGFzc2V0A2FwX3R yYXZlbC8yMDA5MTEwMi91c190cmF2ZWxfYnJpZWZfaG9saWRhe V9mYXJlcwRjcG9zAzEEcG9zAzIEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yeQR zbGsDYWlybGluZXNyYXRj

US airlines testing the water to introduce fuel surcharges applicable year-round? Don't be surprised.

:confused:

Nothing in that article mentioned fuel surcharges.

Breaking News - business charge more when there high demand. Alert the media, arm the troops, the sky is falling, ....

The fact that they did it through specific-day surcharges instead of filing half a dozen rate changes with effective periods of a day each is hardly news. But I guess the never stops the media from "big bad business, we're looking out for the consumer" stories.

Charging more during high demand periods was done and still is being done via adjusting the prices of published fares, fare rule restrictions and/or fare inventory control. What is relatively new in the US is the enlarged scope of the application of surcharges on top of the more traditional method of dealing with high demand periods.