Airline Fees
Airlines are always looking to make a buck. Or five, or ten. American Airlines instituted a new policy at 9 am EST on 9/7. Similar to a policy enacted by Northwest Airlines last month, they will charge $5 for customers who buy a ticket through a telephone reservations center and $10 for customers who buy at the ticket counter. The only difference seems to be the absence of a $7.50 fee for the travel agent systems. In Northwest Commits Corporate Suicide, Charles Leocha pointed out the many problems with such a policy. While American solved some of them by excluding the $7.50 fee, others remain.
The reason I point out the time the policy took place is because I made a reservation in the early hours of 9/7 (around 2 am), and went to book it at around 10 pm. While there was no warning of the impending fee when I made the reservation, the hold music/recording at 10 pm did mention the fee.
When I booked, I sought an exemption from the fee because the ticket I was booking was a "lap ticket" for my infant son (who will be flying on my lap), a type of ticket that CANNOT be booked online. I discovered that "American said it would waive the fee ... for speakers of some foreign languages who don’t have a full range of ticketing options." How about for those who have no alternate ticketing options?
While that was not enough to convince the supervisor with whom I spoke, the fact that I had made the reservation mere hours before the new fee policy was put in place was. The fee was waived.
As an added bonus, the supervisor noticed that I had been charged the lap fee for the domestic leg of an international flight. She removed that, further reducing the fare.