I redeemed a domestic AA award with 2 legs in May and 4 legs in June and was charged $5 : Looks like AA is charging based on time of travel rather than when I bought (in April).

I got the same message yesterday from AA when I went to ticket an award reservation for early July: the security fee holiday applies only to tickets purchased between June 1 and Sept. 30 of this year.

All of the airlines are now raising the cost of all round-trip tickets $10.00 for travel starting June 1. This will offset the reduction of the $10 security fee.

I noticed the $10 increase thing on Delta's site this AM.

It sounds like a good plan to save a few bucks would be to cash in FF miles for tickets in June, thus having them ticketed in the holiday, and avoiding the fee. Then use them sometime in the next year.

Also related to the fee, I noticed that they didn't charge the security fee on my 'bump' voucher. Would the airline pay this fee, or do they just justify that bumped passengers have already gone through security, so don't need to be double-taxed. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Airlines would have loved it if they could have raised fares to mask this tax holiday like they did a few years ago when the ticket tax expired temporarily. In that case they collected more money without appearing to raise fares.

But this tax is an above-the-line add-on, not included in the fare they advertise in the paper or on the Websites. So airlines really do have to raise the fare to try to capture it, and I don't think that will work. An AirTran or Southwest or JetBlue could try to embarrass them and get the fares back down to the earlier equilibrium. Whatever increase they're doing now will be erased in the next round of sales.

On page 1 of today's Wall Street Journal it said, "Airlines will raise round-trip fares $10 on June 1, when the federal security fee is suspended."

The detailed article said this was first announced by AA and then quickly matched by UA, CO, DL, NW, and USair. No mention of discount carriers, like SouthWest.

I read an article this morning that said the government was investigating the $10 fare increase...they suspect the airlines of breaking their agreement not to use collusion (i don't think that is the word they used!!, but I can't find the paper)

If I find article I will edit this and use correct wording.

Interesting subject. Checked the tsa.gov web site and found the legislation at 49 USC 40101, et seq. The "fee" in particular is set forth at 49 USC 44940. Could not find any reference on the dhs.gov site to the government refunding the fee to the airlines. If anyone has that cite would appreciate hearing.

Just like the airline excise tax this fee is payable by the airline but collectable from the passenger and it is collected upon sale but accrues upon transportation. The fee is $2.50/segment NTE $5.00/one way. Therefore the maximum fee is $10.00/round trip. This does not mean every trip is assessed $10.00 but rather the maximum fee is $10.00.

In any event, I paid AA this fee for travel after June 1/before September 30 and they refuse to refund it. If the fee is refundable to the airline then it is almost identical to the airline excise tax debacle several years ago; the airlines pocketed the tax and the consumer had no means of recovering it because: a) the airline was immune from suit as the Government's tax collector; and, b) the consumer had no procedural means of recovering the tax since he/she did not file excise tax returns.

In any event there is a toll free telephone number to contact the tsa if anyone is interested - (866) 289-9673. Good luck!

Any official updates on this as far as getting the money back? Airtran states "Thank you for taking the time to write with your inquiry. Unfortunately, any reservations made prior to June 1, 2003 for travel between the dates of
June 1 and September 30, there is not a refund. The "September 11 Security fee" is applied at the time of purchase, therefore the fees associated with the tax has been forwarded to the government."