Originally Posted by
jzumrick
Yes, all I care about is the total price. But when you have to go through a booking process to find you total price that is wrong. Airlines advertise using attractive prices, hotels do it with resort fees, and the car rental boys are doing it.
The whole package is much more laborious to find, and compare and consumes an inordinate amount of time even for those experienced in such matters. This is worse still for the occasional traveler, and likely to trap them with many unexpected fees.
This is sneaky marketing which I don't appreciate.
Except that's not how it works. Unlike hotels and car rentals, airline advertising is regulated by DOT. All non-governmental fees and surcharges must be advertised in the fare. They micromanage the advertising down to the number of clicks it takes to get from a fare ad to the fine print. So it's not sneaky.
Fuel surcharges are in place for several reasons: (1) they're easier to change than base fares (e.g., rather than changing 50,000 fares when oil spikes, you change a single surcharge); (2) they tend to stick with better frequency in the market than fare increases; and (3) if you use YQ, travel agents don't get commission on the surchage. No impact on taxes paid however.