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A ticketing fee that’s “deception at its worst”

April 3, 2008

Ticketing fees are an endless source of frustration to air travelers. And I’m not necessarily talking about Delta Air Lines’ hugely unpopular move to institute fees on award tickets booked through partner airlines (come on, last time I checked an award didn’t cost anything). I’m talking about long-established fees that continue to confound passengers.

Case in point: Larry Kanter. He tried to book an award ticket for his son on American Airlines recently. I should note that his son is an AAdvantage member. Here’s what happened when he tried to pay the $5 ticketing fee:

The system would not accept my credit card because my name did not match his AAdvantage number. Since he is a minor, he does not have a credit card.

I called a reservations agent and she indicated that she would see if she could complete the transaction with my credit card, which she ultimately did. At no time did she indicate that there would be a charge.

I received the ticket confirmation and noted that I was charged an additional $15. This is wrong and I would like the charge removed. There is absolutely no reason to charge me $15 for a problem in American Airlines’ computer system that will not let a parent pay for his son’s ticket.

Seems reasonable, right? Not to the airline. Here’s how it responded:

Dear Mr. Kanter:

I’m sorry that you are disappointed with the service fee that applies to tickets issued through our reservations offices and airport locations. This type of fee is fast becoming an industry standard and represents a way for us to continue to offer full services and keep our pricing competitive.

At the same time, we understand that the service charge is most objectionable when it is applied to transactions that cannot be booked online those involving an unaccompanied minor. While these ticket purchase transactions cannot be conducted via AA.com at this time, we are working hard to enhance AA.com technology to allow these transactions in the future — we just aren’t there yet.

Accordingly, the fee applies as these ticket purchases currently require interaction with a ticket agent.

Sincerely,

Kristine M. Darmody
Customer Relations
American Airlines

This is not just a form letter. It’s an awful form letter on many levels. It should have never been sent to Kanter.

For starters, American is nickeling and diming one of its best customers, a frequent flier. It apologizes, admits its own technology isn’t capable of a simple transaction but then decides to keep its passenger’s money anyway. How exactly does that build brand loyalty?

Also, there are two pieces of information that are submitted as fact that are in fact fallacy. First, that this type of fee is “fast becoming an industry standard.” There are still some notable exceptions, particularly for elite-level frequent fliers. And besides, just because everyone else is doing it doesn’t make it right.

I have to also take issue with American’s “we are working hard … we just aren’t there yet” statement. We’re talking about one of the most technologically sophisticated airlines on the planet. American practically invented yield management, which prices airline tickets according to a sophisticated algorithm. And they can’t accept a credit card number through their Web site?

No, sorry. Not buying it.

“This is a Catch-22 ‘gotcha’ situation and it is deception at its worst,” says Kanter. “I am paying $15 to pay a $5 fee because AA cannot accept my credit card on its Web site, but they can certainly accept it over the phone. This is outrageous!”

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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15 comments

  • http://www.very-simple.com/blog sam

    I had the same problem a few years ago with Continental. I was booking a highly complicated itinerary to visit my brother in Palau, which involved four flight legs in each direction and an attempt to upgrade with reward miles. I should also point out that, at the time, I was a Platinum frequent flyer. So I called reservations to book my flight, and no mention was ever made of an extra “how dare you expect to speak to an actual person when spending several thousand dollars on a plane ticket” fee.

    The reason I actually tried to fight it though, was that it showed up on my credit card as a separate “paper ticket fee”, when I booked everything with e-tickets. I called to complain, because I hadn’t requested paper tickets (and, obviously, if they were required I certainly hadn’t received them in the mail and they were going to need to be tracked down). It was at this point that they informed me that it wasn’t a paper ticket fee at all, but a fee for speaking to a live person. Which I was never informed of at the time I booked the flight. They certainly didn’t care. They also claimed that this piece of important information about charges to my credit card that I clearly hadn’t authorized was apparently part of the pre-recorded boilerplate that you’re apparently supposed to be paying close attention to during breaks in the “on hold” muzak.

    It was only $10, and it certainly wasn’t going to break me on a ticket that cost me over $3K, but the principle of it still bugs me to this day.

    Needless to say, on my most recent trip to Asia, I flew Singapore Airlines.

  • ChrisK

    I have also found this in the past with American’s meeting fares. Sure, they give you 5-10% off of the fare, but you can not book these online, so you are FORCED to call and pay $15 to have them ticketed over the phone. In many cases the amount you would save using the discount is negated by their $15 “agent fee.”

    I am also peeved by the fact that you can not book open jaw or multi city AADvantage awards on their site – you also have to call and pay a fee.

    Clearly this technology exists – you can book open jaw and multi city REVENUE tickets on their website. They’re just choosing not to offer it for AAdvantage awards.

  • Jasper

    1) They are not keeping their pricing competitive when they are flurrying their customers after the ‘price’ with fees and surcharges. They may fool themselves, but the customer know what (s)he paid. In a sense that statement is a flat out lie.

    2) A ticketing fee in itself is ridiculous. It is a fee charged to you to pay. I do not understand how the online world is getting away with it. Can you imagine the outrage in any brick store if anyone would be charged a ‘check-out fee’ at the cash register? “Well sorry mam, we have to pay for mortgage, and do you know how expensive it was to build this box store?”. And what’s worse is that in the case of a real brick store, the argument is more true than with a website. Any store is more expensive than a website.

    3) I am pretty sure Kristine MD is not sorry at all about the customer disappointment. So, thats a lie too.

  • Taylor

    I’ve never understood why United requires me to call them over the phone to book partner award travel (while DL, NW, & CO allow you to book it via their websites now) but still charges me an “over the phone fee” for a ticket that I would gladly book via the web if their website had that functionality.

    It shouldn’t surprise me; United is always lagging technology-wise with respect to the other domestic carriers.

  • Mindy M

    At the beginning of the on-line booking engine era, the Airlines actually had the temerity to advertise – “book on line and save on those Travel Agent fees”! So I ask, if they are not charging fees to speak to a live human, why not go ahead and pay the Travel Agent their higher fee in order to get consistent/better service?

  • ChrisK

    I agree with Taylor. I can see charging someone if they CHOOSE to use a phone agent…just as when you get charged if you CHOOSE to have paper tickets instead of an e-ticket.

    But when you don’t have the technology in place to allow the customer the option to do something for free, you should not be charging for it.

  • Ian

    “Needless to say, on my most recent trip to Asia, I flew Singapore Airlines.”

    If you frequently fly to Asia, I’m amazed you wouldn’t already be using Asian airlines over American ones at every possible opportunity.

  • Jeanette

    I ran into similar issues with both American and Lufthansa. I had credit vouchers with both airlines for flights, but because one has to contact the airline directly over the telephone to use the credit voucher, you are then charged the additional $15 per ticket to use the voucher (that’s in addition to the $100 charge for the initial need to cancel the first flight, which was probably overbooked to begin with).

  • Adele

    A similar thing happened to me with American Airlines. I booked an Aadvantage award on line for my mother to fly out to visit me. To book the ticket, I had to pay a small TSA inspection fee ($10 at that time, I think). Well, ok. I used my credit card, and received an on-line receipt with my tickets stating everything was paid in full. Well, once AA had my credit card number, they tacked on an additional $50 fee without my knowledge. I still don’t know for what. It just showed up on my credit card statement. When I called AA to complain, I was told I just “should have expected it.” I explained it was equivalent to paying for groceries with a credit card, then discovering weeks later you’ve been charged a $50 bagging fee. I got nowhere. So I complained to my credit card company, who ruled in my favor. AA didn’t like that, and sent the $50 fee to a collection agency. Not having the time to pursue the matter further, I paid the fee.

    One trick to get around paying a fee for using a voucher: make the reservation on line and get a 24hour hold, but don’t pay for it. Proceed directly to the airport with record locator number and voucher in hand and wait in the check-in line. I did that last summer. The ticket agent booked my ticket and didn’t charge me a fee to use the voucher. Or, maybe the fee wil stilll appear on my credit card statement some time in the future, it’s only been 8 months, after all. :)

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  • http://www.very-simple.com/blog sam

    If you frequently fly to Asia, I’m amazed you wouldn’t already be using Asian airlines over American ones at every possible opportunity.

    I actually don’t fly frequently to Asia – it was my second trip. But to get to Palau, you have to fly Continental, or take a boat. They’re the only carrier servicing that country other than a tiny island hopper “airline” with one plane (which I’m not sure even flies regularly) (even if you manage to book on another airline, you’ll be on a continental plane from Guam to Palau). I also have about a gazillion continental miles, so I’d ordinarily be inclined to look there first, but for the fact that they’ve become a total pain in my a**.

    The one thing I forgot to mention in my original post, which a lot of people brought up later – I had to book over the phone rather than on the web, even though I could chart out the flights on the computer, because back in 2005/2006, there was no way to book an upgrade to a paid-for ticket with points on the computer. In addition, there was no convenient way online to ensure that I would be able to buy an “upgradeable” ticket, because, nowadays, you can only upgrade on certain classes of tickets.

  • adamjs

    I have run into a similar situation with United and Delta on more than one occasion. The most recent and most frustrating was when United sent me a $100 e-cert as a consolation for a horrible experience. When I went to book a flight with the e-cert the transaction wouldn’t process and I was told to call customer service. Customer service told me that they were having problems with the e-certs and they sent me a paper voucher which could only be used over the phone or at the airport. United was nice enough to waive my booking fee but told me that because I was booking 2 tickets that my travel companions ticket would be assessed the $15 fee and I was best of booking that ticket separately online. This I found to be on of the most outrageous experiences I had ever had with United. Incidentally I had booked our seats together and there was a “schedule change” which put us on a different flight, not sitting together, with no available seats. I called United and was told that I should have booked the two tickets in on reservation and this wouldn’t have happened. I sent customer service a letter explaining the while situation and I received a form letter explaining that United seat assignments are not guaranteed!

  • Lisa Skier

    AA tried to do the same to me when I was redeeming miles (Maiden Name on CC – married name on AA frequent flier). Couldn’t complete the reservation on line but after calling several times ended up with a rep who thought the fee was stupid and didn’t charge me! Took persistence though. Because of silly things like this I tend to use a TA because they have more time to navigate the mess then I do and I will happily pay someone to do that.

  • Laurence Levine

    after looking thru more public records, i have a feeling that there not only is no Kristine Darmody working for AA customer relations and that the name Kristine M. Darmody could be just a generic name the AA customer relations dept.picked to sign off on all their correspondence with irate customers. There is only one Darmody listed that i could find in the Fort Worth Texas area and collar counties . Doesn’t that seem odd, there is no public record for a Kristine M. Darmody and only one other Darmody listed in public records.It is also a coincidence that you got a response from a Kristine M. Darmody and I got a letter from a Kristine M. Darmody and others got letters from Kristine M. Darmody,but no one has written in that i could find on the web that was signed by someone else. Like maybe Jane Smith or John Jones etc. So it seems to me, that every email letter that goes out to an irate customer is signed by a Kristine M. Darmody. They might even sign all their letters Laurence Levine or Elliot Forum . It’s like getting an email from Ella Fant.

  • Laurence Levine

    i would like to clarify the above comments. There is no public record for a Kristine M. Darmody ‘ that i could find’ in public records.Public Records meaning, the white pages, real estate records. Other public records were not used for my search to find a Kristine M. Darmody.

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