Banks are masters at charging fees as we already know but the travel industry well experienced too. Many people do not realise that they are even being charged a booking fee until it is too late; still others never know that they have been charged a fee for a service that, as far as we’re concerned, it doesn’t merit the extra cost.
Even more sneaky, some booking fees can masquerade themselves as part of the service, but are they legitimate? If you want to know why you are spending extra, it is reasonable that you should know what you are spending it on.
In the competitive world of cheap travel one of the ways the airlines, hotels and car rental companies are able to squeeze a little bit more into their revenues is to charge fees. Convenience is not always free.
Fees to Look Out For On Your Next Holiday:
Booking Fee: A booking fee is an extra charge for “booking” a reservation. Such fees can be expected on almost big-ticket item; booking a flight, hotel room, holiday rental house, car rental or even purchasing a ticket to a sporting event. So that’s right, you’ve bought your airline ticket or hotel room but now you’re going to have to pay the man for the hassle of booking. Swipe – there goes an extra few bucks.
Over The Phone or In Person Fee: If you book a flight with a major airline you’ll generally be charged a fee for speaking to someone. Qantas charge $35 to book domestic tickets and $60 for international flights in person at the airport desk or over the phone. This is a cost efficiency fee to drive people online to make a booking DIY-style. Go online to book and pay no fees. The same goes for hotels.
Cancellation Fees: If you need cancel a ‘cattle class’ airline ticket you usually can’t get your money back at all. That’s right no refund. At best most airlines will take a sizable percentage of your ticket. without being clipped with an administrative cancellation fee. At the hotel, you can cancel your hotel room the day or two before you arrive, read your hotel’s cancellation policy carefully. You may be penalised for the cost of a night’s stay (or more).
Change Fee/Itinerary Change Fee: Even the best laid plans can be changed – hopefully for all the right reasons (holiday romance). If you need to change your hotel reservation then there will be a cost to move you to a new room or extend your stay in your current room even though you won’t be staying overnight. Changes to your airline ticket itinerary can be really costly as well. Qantas charge $60 to change a ticket up until the day before departure if you do it over the phone.
Extra Baggage Allowance Fee: Go to the airport, any airport in the world, and you’ll see people taking all their earthly goods with them. Pack light people! Go over that baggage allowance limit of 20kg and be prepared to pay a fortune for every kilogram over the limit.
Checked Baggage fee: Most of the budget airlines the world over will charge a fee for taking any checked baggage for the cheapest fares. You can pay a bit more for a more expensive fare and pay an extra fee which would include some checked baggage (20kg).
Fail-To-Present-Your-Printed-Online-Ticket-Fee: In an effort to shave off some time and expense some budget airlines in Europe make passengers print off their online ticket confirmation prior to coming to the checkout desk. Passengers who turn up to check-in desk without having their ticket printed off get charged a fee. Chaos ensues.
Hotel Late Check Out Fee: Arrgh, this one really stinks. This one really could come down to bad planning on the travelers part. You’re at the end of your holiday and you’re flight doesn’t leave until 11:50pm that night but the hotel check-out time is 10am. What are you going to do for the next 14 hours? If you’ve packed light, then no problem. But if you’re on a tight budget and you’ve got loads of luggage with you then you’ll need to extend your stay or pay a fee. Sometime you can pay a fee for late check out, other hotels will charge you a full day. The smartest move would be to see if they are willing to stow your luggage with the reception until the evening when you can return en-route to the airport.
The list goes on and on. There are hotels that charge a fortune to eat from the mini-bar, use the safe or park the car in the car park. There are airlines that charge fees for unaccompanied minors to travel. There are airports that charge an arm and a both leg for airport car parking, airports that don’t freely dispense the clear plastic bags to store liquids in, corrupt airports like Denpasar Bali that charge an extra immigration tax on people entering and leaving which should be covered by your airline ticket.
What can you do about it?
If you’re planning to travel and want to avoid fees, or you’ve been unfairly stung by an extra fee or just want to do gripe about something then here are a few suggestions about what to do:
- Plan your itinerary really well to avoid needing to change things or pay for extra services.
- Get good at doing things online to avoid paying for telephone calls and telephone booking assistance fees.
- Pack light.
- Understand what fees are out there so you won’t be a sitting duck.
- Always read the fine print before you book.
- Shop around by using comparison and consolidator sites.
- Complain to the airline, hotel or vehicle rental company. And if the matter doesn’t get resolved satisfactorily take it to the appropriate complaints board. Oh and you could use your presence on Twitter, Facebook, blogs and travel forums to politely let other people know about it (loads of the big travel companies monitor their brand performance on social media sites. The last thing they want is to leave an unhappy customer flaming them on social media!).
- If you need to cancel a flight or hotel room then do so as early as possible.
For your next city break or business trip you can avoid booking fees on your hotel by booking on CheapHotels.com.au where prices are low, there’s 90,000+ hotels to choose from and there’s no hidden costs. Check out the cheap hotels in Sydney and cheap hotels in Melbourne before your next hotel stay.
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