IBIT on The Cheap: AIRFARES, Part 3

Delta Airlines flight landing at Lindbergh Field, San Diego

QUESTION: When is a bargain fare not a bargain fare?
ANSWER: When it’s a low-ball rate that doesn’t include everything you’ll be charged for. Don’t let the airlines bait-and-switch you.

While you’re reading this, someone somewhere is online in search of an airfare bargain — and they just found one! They’re all excited. Their pulse is racing. Their eyes have yet to fall on that very fine print that reads: “not incl. taxes & fees”

But they will. They will.

Meanwhile, someone else on a different site just spotted a steal of an airfare, with absolutely no fine print about taxes, fees or anything else. Nothing, that is, except a little asterisk, which eventually leads them to the information that that great-looking fare is only one way, based on the purchase of a round-trip ticket.

Which means that even if they want to go one-way at that price, they won’t be allowed to do so.

SPIN THE AIRFARES
The airlines have been playing these game for years. It makes them look as if they’re charging a lot less than they actually are.

You have to wonder sometimes who they think they’re kidding. I mean, it’s not as if you aren’t going to end up paying the full cost eventually, right?

And the airline’s dirtiest little ticketing secret: An airline that seems to have higher airfares may actually end up costing you less.

So how do you tell the difference? These days, with some difficulty. For now, you have three options:

1. Find a travel site that quotes you the total price of your flight up front — or at least break out the taxes and fees where you can see them. Such sites do exist, but you have to look for them.
2. Do the calculations yourself manually, one reservation, one airline at a time.
3. Find a site that helps you calculate the true cost of your flight.

At least one such site already is in beta. It’s called TruPrice.

THE TRUE PRICE
TruPrice starts you out by selecting one or more of 17 U.S.-based airlines. It then sends you to another screen where you enter the cost not only of the airfare and tax, but fees for things like checked baggage and priority boarding. In fact, it gives you eight pull-down menus of nothing but add-on fees — 35 fees in all. TruPrice automatically calculates the total cost of your flight as you go.

If you just want to know what those add-ons cost, just click one of them. TruPrice automatically tells you.

You not only can figure out what the airline actually will charging you for a given flight, but you can compare multiple airlines against one another. From this, you will learn two valuable things:

• Not all airlines are rated equal when it comes to fees. Some charge for certain things. Others don’t.
• Some airlines start out with a slightly higher airfare, but because they charge fewer add-on fees, or charge less for certain ones, the total cost of your ticket may actually be LESS.

Why go through this hassle? The airline industry took in nearly $9 billion in add-on fees last year, and they took it from people like you and me. That’s why. And all the signs point to the airlines continuing to get jiggy with the fees for the foreseeable future. That reason alone justifies the time you put in online with sites like TruPrice.

With or without this kind of online help, though, always make sure you understand up front exactly what you’re being asked to pay. Working it all out may take you a little extra time, but the result could leave you with some extra cash.

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