'I’m not being blackmailed': Travelers ask airlines to be more upfront about ticket costs

When Patricia Cregan and her sister flew to Walt Disney World Resort from their homes in England in January, they were annoyed to find out they had to pay extra to choose seats on their flights.

“If I wanted to book my seats, they were 80 pounds (about $100) per person outbound and 72 pounds (about $90) per person inbound,” Cregan told USA TODAY. “I refused. I’m not being blackmailed.”

Cregan said she had booked the trip as a package holiday through Disney and wasn’t informed of the extra charges for seat selection on British Airways until after she had already paid.

“I phoned up to book this. At no point did anybody say – which was my argument with the guy from British Airways – at no point in the initial process or throughout the whole process did I know you had to pay to book,” she said.

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Cregan is hardly alone. For travelers shopping for airline tickets by price, it can be almost impossible to know the true cost to fly until nearly the end of the transaction.

“In advertisements airlines are only required to present the fare plus any taxes and mandatory fees. Airlines are also required on their website to have a page that’s dedicated to listing all of their fees, but airlines are not required to display ancillary fees such as carry-on bag fees, checked bag fees, or change and cancellation fees whenever they present a ticket for sale,” Andrew Appelbaum, counsel at FlyersRights.org told USA TODAY.

Appelbaum said that travelers who book airline tickets through a third party, as Cregan did, can have an even harder time learning the true cost of their flights.

“When you look at these third-party sites, you might see some basic information such as no changes allowed, or no seat selection, or seat selection for a fee, but you won’t see the actual cost of the ancillary service,” he said.

Monica Layton, a screenwriter and actor from Louisiana, said she had a similar experience traveling to Europe as Cregan did on her Orlando trip.

“According to Travelocity (my ticket) included a seat choice, a personal item, carry-on and one checked bag,” Layton told USA TODAY. “I didn’t have any trouble selecting my seat with United, all the United flights, but then, when I got to the part of Lufthansa and Brussels, they didn’t allow me to do it.”

Expedia, which owns Travelocity, explained in a statement that because United Airlines partners with Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines, tickets sold by United to some destinations in Europe may be operated by those other carriers, and when that happens, the operating airline’s ticket policies apply.

“When booking a flight on Expedia, the app will display fees and restrictions provided by the airline,” the statement said. “On codeshare flights, we are only able to display the fees and restrictions that the marketing carrier chooses to provide, which may not include separate fees collected by the operating carrier.”

The intricacies can be frustrating to travelers.

“It makes traveling very unpleasant when you don’t get a seat because if you don’t pay extra to get it, they usually give you a middle seat,” Layton said. “Why add this inconvenience? It’s all about money.”

The Department of Transportation proposed a rule that would require airlines to be more upfront, both on their own platforms and on third-party travel sites, about extra fees that could be associated with a given ticket. That rule is expected to be finalized by the end of this month.

But unless that rule is enacted, Appelbaum said travelers will continue being slightly in the dark about the actual cost of airline tickets.

“Currently, it’s very hard to comparison shop. Unfortunately, it will take consumers more time to find the best ticket for them, and the airlines tout market competition. The way things are currently, it’s really hard for consumers to see the results of that competition. It’s hard for consumers to see the best ticket for them,” he said.

Zach Wichter is a travel reporter for USA TODAY based in New York. You can reach him at zwichter@usatoday.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What fees are airlines and booking sites required to disclose?