Category Archives: Fares

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ordered airlines on July 6, 2017 to increase transparency of their airfares by individually disclosing taxes, airport fees and other charges levied to consumers. Moreover, the CJEU ruled that carriers can no longer levy extra charges against customers who either miss or cancel their flights. Airlines hate transparency because they know that they will sell more tickets if consumers are ill-informed about the total price of a flight. As a result of this ruling, however, carriers can no longer hide additional charges to the...

Several readers asked us about seat selection on KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. They found out they had to pay for advance seat selection and wonder what that has to do with the airline's cost. The short answer is: nothing. Advance seat selection does not impose any cost on carriers. They only charge advance seat selection fees because they can. Traditional network airlines like KLM face competition from low-cost carriers like EasyJet, Norwegian and Ryanair that are similar to Frontier Airlines and

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In a supplemental notice of Jan. 17, 2017 the US Department of Transportation (DOT) is proposing that airlines and ticket agents must disclose fees for the first and second checked bag and a carry-on bag. They must do so while customers are still researching airline fares so that they can make informed decisions. This follows a notice of October 18, 2016. Until the late 2000s, bag fees only applied in special cases, for example oversized bags. From then on, however, air carriers started to “unbundle” fees, which...

India is the country where you can buy the cheapest tickets, whereas in the United Arab Emirates tickets are most expensive. This is based on averages across low-cost and network airlines and domestic and international flights. The calculations are made by Kiwi.com, formerly known as Skypicker, an online travel agency that has developed an Aviation Price Index, detailing 75 countries that offer the most and least affordable flights. Surprisingly, Sweden belongs to the 10 cheapest countries, while China ranks only 11. There are no surprises among the most expensive countries...