More charges with American carriers
Robert JonesMajor carrier US airlines have recently extended their peak travel period charges on domestic flights to also include America’s most popular holiday dates through the complete calendar year.
American Airlines, in late September, stepped away from its traditional position and became the first US carrier to explicitly ask for a $10 (€7) charge for every flight for a period of three days around Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.
As predicted, almost every major US carrier has done the same, but now the premiums are being charged to nearly every important travel holiday, said officials at FareCompare on October 9.
Going against the grain are smaller budget leaders JetBlue and Southwest which have not yet added the extra fees and have said they do not plan to do to so.
The application of holiday travel surges echoes the introduction of a number of other extra fees including for seat choice, food, checked luggage and other services that were traditionally part of the ticket price.
One good news is that flights for winter holiday are presently 12 to 15 percent cheaper than a year ago thanks to more reasonable fuel costs and a reduced demand, according to FareCompare.
Here’s a list of the affected dates:
November 29 – November 30, 2009: Weekend after Thanksgiving
December 19: Saturday before Christmas
December 26 – December 27: Weekend after Christmas
January 2 – January 3, 2010: Weekend after New Year’s Day
March 14, 2010: Sunday before many student spring breaks
March 20 – March 21, 2010: Weekend after many student spring breaks
March 28, 2010: Palm Sunday, weekend before Easter
April 11, 2010: Monday of Easter, weekend after Easter
May 28, 2010: Friday before Memorial Day
/images/rssicon.jpg "Subscribe to RSS feed")
Subscribe for free and recieve the latest Self-Catering-Breaks news and stories
Filed under Business & Finance, Travel News, World News