Morgiana Celestine-Lewis and her cousin Angie Taylor had scored a room at the Westin near Los Angeles International Airport for $124 the first night. As part of a birth-year promotion, they paid $73 the second night because Taylor s birth year is 1973.
When they got the bill at checkout, they found a $25-a-night fee for parking u2 vertigo tour review plus a $2.50 parking tax, charges they say the hotel did not disclose when they booked online. Parking their car for two nights came at a cost approaching that of parking themselves in a room for a second night.
Travelers are starting to get used to fees charged by airlines. But they re increasingly being faced with more fees once they land. Hotels are doing more of it. Rental car companies are doing it. And now even cruise lines are dallying with it.
Buying an airline ticket, checking into a hotel, and even showing up first used to get you more than a seat and a bed. Now, travelers have to choose from an à la carte menu of services or conveniences to board first, use the gym or even zip through toll lanes more quickly.
This year, Allegiant Air joined u2 vertigo tour review Spirit Airlines in charging u2 vertigo tour review for carry-on bags in addition to checked bags. Fees range from $10 to $35 each way. Next month, Spirit, which introduced the carry-on fee, will increase it to a maximum of $100 one way if you don t pay in advance. u2 vertigo tour review If you do, you ll have to come up with only $25.
Some airlines are charging for services you can do yourself. Spirit charges $5 if you skip the airport kiosk and ask the customer service agent to print your boarding pass. Virgin America this summer started charging $20 if you call to upgrade u2 vertigo tour review or select a seat and $20 if you need your itinerary re-sent.
Experts say airlines have just about exhausted u2 vertigo tour review the fees they can introduce for services they used to offer for free, such as choosing seats and getting a snack on board. Airlines have taken on a new role: They re becoming retailers by devising new services and products to sell. American Airlines, for instance, introduced a baggage-delivery service within four hours of arrival from $29.95 to $49.95 depending on the number of bags. And U.S. Airways u2 vertigo tour review now has a premium meal in economy on international flights for $19.99.
Your ticket is just getting you from A to B. Anything else in terms of bags, meals, where you sit on a plane, at what point you board, is up for sale, says Blaise Waguespack, an aviation u2 vertigo tour review marketing professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. They are going from a fee mentality to a retail mentality.
Airlines throughout the world reported making u2 vertigo tour review $22.6 billion in fees for add-ons such as extra services and frequent-flier programs in 2011, a $20 billion jump since 2007, according to a review by IdeaWorks Company, a consulting firm that specializes in so-called ancillary revenue, and Amadeus, which processes transactions for the travel industry. For some airlines, such as Spirit, that makes up more than 30% of their total revenue.
u2 vertigo tour review U.S. airlines in the first half of this year collected $1.7 billion in baggage fees alone, according to the Transportation Department. Delta led the pack with $430 million. United followed with $351 million.
And that s made traveling much more stressful for Celestine-Lewis. The last time she and her husband went to Las Vegas, they paid $60 round-trip each for extra legroom because her husband is 6-8, and about $200 in baggage fees. The airlines, hotels and rental car companies know we are at their mercy, she says.
Hotels introduced a resort fee, usually u2 vertigo tour review for the use of swimming pools and other amenities, in 1997. According to the American Hotel and Lodging Association, 19% of luxury hotels now charge resort fees.
At many properties across the country, fees are being charged for parking, u2 vertigo tour review early departures, faxes, in-room safes, mini-bar restocking, housekeeping and bellman services, Wi-Fi and even luggage storage. The fees vary widely by service and property.
u2 vertigo tour review Last year, hotels collected $1.85 billion in fees. Hanson projects that this year, the industry will collect $1.95 billion. He attributes the bump to a 3.5% increase in the number of occupied u2 vertigo tour review rooms this year plus higher fees and surcharges.
Kenneth Means, a director of field engineering in Grand Prairie, Texas, was surprised when he was told at a Hilton that checking out early would incur a charge. I have seen at some hotels where this seems to be the policy, and I will not stay at any of them due to that fact, he says.
Mike Wolfe, president of a social-media marketing company in Westchester County, N.Y., stayed at the Boston Marriott Copley Place for a conference this summer. The price for Internet access in his room was $12.95 for the day. If he wanted faster access, he could pay $16.95 .
McInerney says hotels have to charge for Wi-Fi because people are showing up with more than one device and draining the hotels broadband. The broadband the hotels need to have now is getting bigger and bigger, and someone needs to pay for that, he says.
McInerney says he thinks Internet charges are here to stay. I don t foresee u2 vertigo tour review it changing, he says. I think that if, in the marketplace, if the hotel thinks the customer will pay for it, they will continue to do it.
Go online and select an economy car from Thrifty to be picked up at Atlanta s airport, and you ll find a menu of options . The base price is $32.72. But for $12.99 a day, you can get a GPS navigation system. u2 vertigo tour review For $7.99, you ll get a pass to avoid the long lines at electronic toll booths. For $12 a day, you ll get an infant car seat.
Rental car fees for toll passage, late returns, drop-offs of one-way rentals u2 vertigo tour review and fuel charges were on it. The group picked them because they are the least predictable, can t be paid in advance and are difficult to track individually.
Charges you can t avoid are state taxes used to pay for public projects such as convention centers. Airport concession charges are also difficult to avoid unless you decide to rent the car elsewhere.
This summer, Carnival Cruise Lines rolled out a pilot program called Faster to the Fun for $49.95. It includes early embarkation, early stateroom availability, express luggage-delivery service, priority dinner seating and early or late debarkation.
Norwegian s new Breakaway ship, for instance, will have three main dining rooms serving food included in the fare. But there will be more than 20 restaurants u2 vertigo tour review on the ship. Some, such as celebrity chef Geoff Zakarian s Ocean Blue restaurant, will be open only to those who pay an extra charge.
(We re) just giving the person u2 vertigo tour review who wants to spend a little u2 vertigo tour review bit more to have a different experience every single night (what they want), Kevin Sheehan, CEO of Norwegian u2 vertigo tour review Cruise Line, said during a USA TODAY Roundtable with four top cruise line CEOs. You need to keep it exciting and different so that they want to keep coming back.
Sheehan said he expected most activities and entertainment to remain free. Travelers can watch a show featuring Barbie for free, but if they want Barbie to spend a few days escorting their child around the ship, that will cost them.
Carnival, for instance, recently reported that on-board and other revenue jumped from $936 million in the third quarter of 2011 to $965 million in the third quarter of this year. Meanwhile, ticket revenue u2 vertigo tour review declined from $3.9 billion to $3.6 billion over the same period.
The Transportation Department has forced airlines to disclose government taxes in all advertised fares and made them disclose u2 vertigo tour review fees on their websites. But not much regulation is in place on fees charged by rental cars, hotels or cruises.
u2 vertigo tour review
No comments:
Post a Comment