29 January 2012

Are $US 99 airfares gone?

The Feds are now requiring airlines to post the final and complete price for airfares. Gone, supposedly, are the teaser fares that may jump 200% after taxes and fees are added.

Economy airlines are complaining citing that no other industry has to post taxes on purchases. Spirit Airlines even created a website to garner some support.

So as an example, I looked at Spirit to book a flight from Boston, MA (BOS) to San Jose, Costa Rica (SJO)

FLIGHT $580.00
TAXES & FEES $131.31

APHIS User Fee $5.00
CR - National Tourism Fee $15.00
CR-Common Area User Fee $7.69
CR-Security Fee $2.74
Immigration User Fee $7.00
Passenger Facility Fee $13.50
Passenger Usage Fee $33.98
September 11th Security Fee $7.50
US Customs Fee $5.50
US-International Departure Tax $33.40

TOTAL $711.31

Next I searched the same dates on Hipmunk.com and found this:

The best price found would be on Continental and a total price of $US 660.00.

Granted, I didn't check prices before the feds made retailers quote total price, and we all know that air fares change frequently during the day, but I am in favor of honest pricing. Also, schedules, airlines reputation, frequent flyer accounts and such all contribute to the consumer's decision, so let's see how this plays out.