What was the most outrageous airline fee you ever paid?
Sep 28, 2010, 3:46 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 10
What was the most outrageous airline fee you ever paid?
Airlines are now charging everything - extra luggage, extra legroom, preferred seats, and EVEN soda on flight.
What was the most outrageous airline fee you ever paid and why did you pay it?
What was the most outrageous airline fee you ever paid and why did you pay it?
Sep 28, 2010, 4:35 pm
#3
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Exile
Posts: 15,656
Sep 28, 2010, 6:18 pm
#4
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: BOS
Programs: UA 2P, DL, FL A+ Elite, AA
Posts: 349
~$70 to Aeroflot for overweight baggage. Ok, so it's not totally outrageous but it's the only fee that I'm still 
about. I was leaving the country for the last time and had just exchanged my remaining rubles for $$ before going through security to the check-in counters.
The details are a bit fuzzy, but if I remember correctly, the maximum weight was 23 kilos per bag, and my bathroom scale told me that it would be close. When the agent weighted my bags, one was 24 kg and the other 25. This meant I owed US$50. However, you pay in rubles. I had only USD, so they converted the fee into rubles at the Aeroflot rate of 33.5 rubles per $ (even though the real rate was 28 or so), THEN converted back to USD at the 28 rate. Or something like that... but for sure after all the hocus-pocus the fee was more than stated.
about. I was leaving the country for the last time and had just exchanged my remaining rubles for $$ before going through security to the check-in counters. The details are a bit fuzzy, but if I remember correctly, the maximum weight was 23 kilos per bag, and my bathroom scale told me that it would be close. When the agent weighted my bags, one was 24 kg and the other 25. This meant I owed US$50. However, you pay in rubles. I had only USD, so they converted the fee into rubles at the Aeroflot rate of 33.5 rubles per $ (even though the real rate was 28 or so), THEN converted back to USD at the 28 rate. Or something like that... but for sure after all the hocus-pocus the fee was more than stated.
Sep 29, 2010, 10:20 am
#5
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Wonderful Weald of kent
Programs: BAEC Bronze
Posts: 989
With Easyjet
I was coming home from a trip with extra luggage so needed to put the bag in the hold - I knew this was going to happen, but they don't have an option for booking luggage just one way on a return trip - and you can't just buy the luggage on its own online (or amend your booking.
Anyway - I trundled up to the pay desk with £8 (the return online luggage fee) thinking it wouldn't be any more than that.... in my sticky mitt only to be told that the fee would be £16......as I was buying it at the airport. Pointing out the simple fact that they didn't offer me the option to book it online or amend my return booking to include it didn't wash - so I had to pay double the online return checked baggage fee for a one way trip!
I was coming home from a trip with extra luggage so needed to put the bag in the hold - I knew this was going to happen, but they don't have an option for booking luggage just one way on a return trip - and you can't just buy the luggage on its own online (or amend your booking.
Anyway - I trundled up to the pay desk with £8 (the return online luggage fee) thinking it wouldn't be any more than that.... in my sticky mitt only to be told that the fee would be £16......as I was buying it at the airport. Pointing out the simple fact that they didn't offer me the option to book it online or amend my return booking to include it didn't wash - so I had to pay double the online return checked baggage fee for a one way trip!
Sep 29, 2010, 3:38 pm
#6
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: PHL
Programs: Marriott Lifetime PLT
Posts: 1,229
Paying $50 to standby on an earlier US Shuttle flight when I was booked in full Y. Had i had more time, I would have just cancelled the ticket for a full refund and rebooked on the earlier fight!
Sep 30, 2010, 11:18 am
#14
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Massachusetts, USA; AA Plat, DL GM and Flying Colonel; Bonvoy Platinum
Posts: 24,233
AA's telephone agent fees when you book a ticket that, because of their own management decisions about Web site development, cannot possibly be booked on line.
Most of the fees described above may be much higher than we think the service ought to cost, but at least the principle of charging for whatever tends to be OK. In this case, I think charging anything at all is unethical. They have their customers over a barrel, they know it, and they're exploiting it.
Most of the fees described above may be much higher than we think the service ought to cost, but at least the principle of charging for whatever tends to be OK. In this case, I think charging anything at all is unethical. They have their customers over a barrel, they know it, and they're exploiting it.
Sep 30, 2010, 11:43 am
#15
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Rio de Janeiro, Miami, Nice
Programs: Marriott Titanium, AA Concierge Key, Delta, United, Emorates, and others
Posts: 4,694
The OP did not give a time limit on the responses, so:
About 30 years ago I was flying FC on SQ from Singapore to Dubai, connecting to Sana'a and had a half-ton of equipment and furnishings to take with me. When I called SQ to ask how to handle the shipment they told me the most cost effective solution for me would be as excess baggage. Thus, my spouse and I arrived with a small lorry and numerous porters took the bags and boxes to FC checkin. It all happened seamlessly.
The fee was US$18,517.00. I still have the receipt. It was indeed the cheapest way to get it all to Sana'a, not least because customs clearance was a simpler process for baggage than it would have been for a conventional shipment. I am almost certain nobody could or would try to do such a thing today.
Though the fee was outrageous, it was in the situation, reasonable.
About 30 years ago I was flying FC on SQ from Singapore to Dubai, connecting to Sana'a and had a half-ton of equipment and furnishings to take with me. When I called SQ to ask how to handle the shipment they told me the most cost effective solution for me would be as excess baggage. Thus, my spouse and I arrived with a small lorry and numerous porters took the bags and boxes to FC checkin. It all happened seamlessly.
The fee was US$18,517.00. I still have the receipt. It was indeed the cheapest way to get it all to Sana'a, not least because customs clearance was a simpler process for baggage than it would have been for a conventional shipment. I am almost certain nobody could or would try to do such a thing today.
Though the fee was outrageous, it was in the situation, reasonable.