the airlines seem to have been studying the credit card rules where if you sneeze you loose. why a late payment fee? i guess it costs them more for the computer to figure it out, compute the usurous interest & post on yhe account. the reason for the bank fees is that they can but one can avoid them. the airline fees for award tickets close to flight time can't be avoided and are unconsousable[sp] if you have been waitlisted for a month or more. w/ no paper award certs, its a double whammy!