Hidden fees are a necessary evil in travel these days. But some charges are nastier than others. Here’s what to watch.
If you have to cancel your non-refundable airline ticket, you get credited the value of the ticket for use within a year. Sounds reasonable, right?
Well, if you’re only canceling one leg of your round-trip flight—don’t expect to recoup half the cost of the ticket…each leg is valued differently so you could end up with very little credit.
Then there’s the airlines’ change fees—about $150 domestically. If you booked through a travel agent like Orbitz, there’s probably an additional administrative cost.
Translation: You could wipe out the entire value of your credit.
We’ve all heard of those nasty resort fees and, in fact, one study projects the hotel industry will collect $1.95 billion on those fees alone.
Even though providers are required to advertise these resort fees, it’s not always clear. When you see a great hotel rate on a site like Priceline, it’s only after you click that you see the additional taxes and fees.
But the FTC is now paying close attention to what they call “drip pricing” and has warned several hotels to be transparent in the booking process.
Ultimately, the hope is that advertised rates will someday become more consistent, so we can make more informed decisions.
For more information, visit the Money, Currency & Credit archives.
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