Estimate Fees Before Booking an Airline Ticket

If you’ve flown in the past year or two, you know that the airlines have made flying an a la carte ordeal, charging fees for almost everything.    Checking bags, pillows, blankets, snacks are all things that now cost money on different airlines.  One airline is even making passengers chip in to pay for the crew.   Okay, I made that up, but it is true that one airline is going to start charging a fee to buy a ticket.    Hmmm… charging me for the privilege of buying something from you.  Yeah, I think I’ll pass on that.

In any event, a new feature in the booking engine at Trip Advisor is attempting to add some clarity to all these fees.   If you use their fees estimator, which is a button that shows up on the results page after you enter the basics about your flight (route, dates).   If you click the button, a pop up asks you what services you will need and will then adjust the ticket price on each airline to give you a better understanding of where the best bottom line value is.

For those looking to find the lowest overall price for their next trip (and who isn’t), this tool might be worth a look.

By the way, if you ever need to track a flight, try the MyRatePlan Flight Tracker.