Follow-up on airline tix, and a warning

A follow up on my post from earlier this year on buying transpacific airline tickets, and a warning.

First, I was able to score some reasonably priced tickets. Not through the Internet, but through a real live travel agent, as recommended by Wendy. The problem with searching for Internet tickets: Misleading prices on Yahoo Travel (such as fuel surcharges, see details here) and very high prices on every other site, including the official airline sites. This suprised me -- aren't airlines (or some of them, at least) supposed to have the cheapest tickets on their own sites? Anyway, one of the Asian travel agencies was able to get us sorted out relatively quickly for a reasonable price -- Just south of $800 for the adults, six hundred something for our older child, and two hundred something for the toddler.

Now to the warning I mentioned earlier: USA Today on March 15 editorialized about some consumer protections for passengers that a group of U.S. airlines are attempting to overturn. Currently, federal regulations state that airlines have to advertise domestic base fares in a clear, understandable manner. The airlines want to change this so ads can apparently fine-print everything including "fuel surcharges", higher-priced aisle seats, and other fees. According to the article, the airlines are American, United, Northwest, Delta, and Continental.

To me, it sounds like the tricks cable, car, and phone companies use in their advertising to sucker people into buying their products -- you sign on for the advertised price, but then get billed for "service fees", "connectivity charges", etc. Knowing the way Washington works these days, I am betting a business- and lobbyist-friendly government and legislature is going to let ordinary people like us get screwed.

Caveat Emptor.

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