More Ways for Airlines to Rip You Off

I'm sure everyone has been reading about all of the many changes a-foot within the airline industry in order to keep them a-float. Yeah, gas is expensive, blah blah blah, but, they sure are starting to nickle and dime. Or, rather, five dollar and ten dollar. Or, maybe, fifty dollar and one hundred dollar.

First, if you don't purchase your ticket on-line, you pay a surcharge (forget the fact that sometimes it is impossible to figure things out on-line and you might need to talk to a representative). Then, a charge for special handling of large items (golf clubs, pets, etc.) Ok, that's somewhat reasonable. Then, the charge for checking a 2nd bag. Then, for checking bags at the curb. And, now, most airlines are charging to check ANY bag. Of course, you can't take much on your carry-on, so, most people HAVE to check at least one bag (especially if they are going on vacation; I don't know about you, but, I don't think I could cram 7 days of clothes and stuff into a dinky little carry-on; not to mention the difficulty in bringing on any sort of liquids).

Oh, yeah; they stopped serving any sort of "free" food (including nuts/pretzels on some flights) unless you are either in business or first or flying over 5 hours (I think) or internationally. But, don't worry, you can still get a Diet Coke or apple juice (at least for now). Oh, and many airlines now only accept credit cards for booze/food for purchase!

Anyway. As usual, I am getting off subject.

Yesterday, I sat down to make our air RSVP for our trip to San Diego this coming October. I did some preliminary searching last week and found a fairly decent flight for around $250 (plus all of those silly taxes and fuel charges so it was really closer to $290). Still, I thought it'd be MUCH worse.

Ok. Yesterday. Ready to book 'em! I decided, for kicks, to see if I could use miles to upgrade to business class. This because it is almost freaking impossible to find a flight that I want to take that I can use miles for (blackout dates, God-awful flight times, etc.)

Well, in order to use miles to upgrade (and the miles required to upgrade were not that many), you have to purchase a full-fare coach seat. Ok, so, I plugged that fare in, and, would you believe the fare went from $250 (plus taxes, etc.) to $812 (plus taxes, etc.)? And, there is usually no guarantee that one can upgrade, either. So, you pay this huge fare hoping you can upgrade, then, sorry. No upgrades available. What idiot would do that? Not this one, I can assure you!

After some more dorking around, I decided to see if it would be less expensive to fly into Ontario CA (which is actually closer to where we are staying) rather than San Diego. Well, of course, it was MORE expensive, even though it's a smaller airport and supposedly it is supposed to be cheaper to fly into less traveled airports. Still, in the long run, it probably is still cheaper because we won't have to drive the rental car quite so far. And, it is worth it to get to our end destination several hours earlier.

One good thing I discovered; on Delta, you can usually use your miles to pay down the price of your ticket. Considering how difficult (as I've said) it is to USE miles to get a "free" ticket OR to upgrade, I thought this actually might be worth it.

So, I used a considerable amount of miles to get $250 off each ticket. Which means our actual cost is pretty much nothing.

So, at the end of this long Wednesday morning rant, I actually have something positive to report about the airlines, or, at least, Delta.

Mrs. B