Airline Fares Must Now Include All Related Taxes And Surcharges
By Mike DeNardo
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - If you're booking an airline flight today, the fares may seem more expensive. But they're not.
New rules now require airlines to tell you all of the airport taxes, fees and surcharges from the beginning -- not lure you in with an advertised "teaser" fare that ends up costing a lot more.
Air traveler Donna O'Brien of Northern Liberties says she's fine with that, but she says as an educated consumer she never expected the teaser fare to be her final price anyway.
"I think of when I buy shoes. So they might seem like a certain price and then when I'm tacking on the taxes they're a little higher. But I was like, 'Oh, well I got them on sale or something.' So it still works for me if they're a lower price and I have to add it on."
The new rules apply only to fees that are required, such as fuel surcharges and airport taxes. Bag fees are not necessarily included in these new requirements because they are an option and vary from traveler to traveler.
The president of US Airways says lumping the extras into the advertised price will make it easier for the government to raise taxes because it's the airlines that will wind up looking bad, not the government.
