New Airline Rules Make Prices More Transparent

We All Love A Cheap Flight

Baby Boomer Vacation

     We all love a cheap flight. Say flying from Los Angeles to Las Vegas for $39.00. It's okay I know you love it too. Heck, we all love it. It sounds so good. But then we find out how many extra charges they tack onto the price of that ticket. There is an Airport Passenger and Facility Charges fee up to $18.00, Federal Segment Fees of $3.70 per segment (which is takeoffs and landings), Sept. 11 Fees of $2.50 per Segment. So as you can see that Airline Ticket doesn't really cost you $39.00.
     British Airways is notorious for this they are typically the cheapest flight to Europe about $600.00 but when you add in all the fees it actually costs about $1200.00. So maybe not the cheapest deal in town.
The New Airline Rules
     The new airline rules basically say that all the fees will be put into the advertised price of the ticket. So that $39.00 cheap ticket you got and were so happy about is going away, and what it's being replaced by is an advertised price based in reality. So it may be advertised as $79.00 but that is all you will pay. Pretty good deal right? I think so. Isn't truth in advertising great? I think in the long run this could cause some of the airlines to have to lower some of these fees in order to compete. As long as these fees were in the dark and they could spring them on you at the last minute you would still buy the ticket since you couldn't compare them. But now you can compare apples to apples. In the long run this will be good for travelers.
Airlines Must Notify You of Changes To Flight Times
     Airlines must notify you when your flight has been cancelled or is delayed due to weather or for whatever reason. They must notify you using whatever method possible be that text, phone call, email however possible so that you are not at the airport for three hours waiting for a plane that won't come. If they fail to do that they will be fined. These are all good steps in protecting passengers. I think this is a good start. What do you think? Reply with your thoughts in the comments. If you like what you read here please follow this blog or give it a +1.
Phil Ostroff's photostream