Annoying Summer Vacation Travel Fees to Watch Out For | WSJ Your Money Briefing

[Music] here's your money briefing for Friday June 9th I'm J.R Whalen for the Wall Street Journal the rising cost of airfares and hotel rooms has made it a lot more expensive to travel this summer compared to last year and then there are the fees travel columnist Don Gilbertson joins us so Dawn we saw Airlines and other travel companies eliminate some fees during the pandemic is the return of so many fees the clearest sign to date that you know we've returned to normal I mean it is definitely one sign I mean some fees didn't go away the most notable fee that did go away during the pandemic in fact permanently in many cases are those airline ticket change fees they used to be as much as 200 or 250 a ticket so those are gone for good but people need to know that doesn't apply to all airline tickets you've been with us before talking about fees on basic economy tickets are those on the rise they're not necessarily On The Rise just a lot of people don't realize that they're back you know because Airlines permanently eliminated change fees on regular tickets you know during the pandemic they're back on basic economy tickets so in some cases you know on those No Frill tickets you can't change at all and others you'll still pay a fee of you know 100 to 200 if you can change them so it's just really something Travelers have to keep in mind you know when they click Buy on the cheapest ticket you know when President Biden talked about going to war against junk fees a few months ago he mentioned fees on on airline tickets has anything come about from that nothing yet obviously all these fees and this industry is under a microscope by President Biden and the U.S Department of Transportation but those proposals tend to take quite a long time to Wind Through the government so we haven't seen anything solid on that front yet now Airline fees are often Public Enemy Number One but as you wrote in your reporting hotels have gotten in on the ACT also what should people reserving hotel rooms watch out for obviously Resort fees are you know Enemy Number One when it comes to hotels I was in Las Vegas the resort fee at the hotels I stayed in was you know between forty and fifty dollars a night mandatory but you know we all know about those fees generally but then there's some smaller fees that people need to be aware of you know a lot of people today maybe want to have say Amazon groceries delivered to the hotel or something they forgot a lot of hotels charge a package handling fee Marriott charges uh ten dollars just to have a package delivered to the room yeah to the front desk yep now you spoke to a California resident who found a long list list of fees on his hotel bill what were they charging him for well yeah he didn't realize it till he got home you know so many of us don't this is one thing that you know Travelers really need to pay attention to so many people don't look at their receipt you know until they get home and it's too late to you know go to the front desk and say whoa what is this and this man he was at a conference in Scottsdale Arizona and he found a 10 Bellman gratuity he didn't use the Bellman he found a three dollar daily housekeeping fee and he had already left cash for the housekeeper and then he found a credit card processing fee which I have not come across very frequently so he wasn't very happy yeah I can imagine now if somebody does leave money for the housekeeping staff is there a way to get out of that fee that might be applied by the hotel later on I mean you can certainly try you know I mean my Mo with all these types of fees is to talk to the front desk I mean say the resort fee say you know it covers the pool and it covers all this different stuff and you didn't use that or it was closed during your stay I believe you have a legitimate case for saying can you please remove this from my room and I did that as recently as this weekend oh what happened to you I had a flight cancellation on an airline that shall be unnamed at the moment and I was stranded in Las Vegas so I checked into this hotel at 1am at my own expense and the resort fee was going to be 40 and I was leaving the next day and I'm like you know what I'm not going to use any of your amenities would you kindly take it off and she did you can also get kind of expensive to rent a car so what kind of fees are creeping into people's bills there another area to really pay close attention to I've heard from some readers who looked at their bill and saw like a 15 or 16 dollar fuel service charge when they had filled up the tank so really be careful and get a receipt and don't leave that lot until they acknowledge the receipt that the gas tank is indeed full so you can avoid that fee another one that I came across pretty much by accident I was on the phone with a airline CEO on an interview and he was returning a Tesla to the Hartford airport and he hadn't charged it fully and they dinged him 35 dollars oh wow so this is a case where people need to really read the fine print on their contracts really well oh for sure just pay attention you know or ask they upgraded him to a Tesla at no charge he thought he'd try one he was in a rush you know and just didn't charge it and I never heard of that fee I mean it makes perfect sense but I had never heard of it by the way I read in your column about restaurants charging people for ice in their drink how is that going over well you know this whole craft cocktail boom right and so there was a case in Las Vegas at the luxury Wind Resort where somebody posted a receipt that showed a 3.50 craft ice fee and I reached out to the hotel and it turns out they are changing suppliers and that fee will no longer be charged can't make this up what power do Travelers have here you mentioned that you can go to the front desk but other ways to avoid paying some of these fees by the way that you make the reservation yes for sure I mean there's certain places Las Vegas for one of them it's very very very hard to avoid Resort fees in Las Vegas but in other cities you know say in New York or Chicago they may be known as a different thing like destination fees or amenity fees but there are some that don't charge them so in your shopping click on those taxes and fee details and if there's something there that rubs you the wrong way don't stay there book somewhere else I talked to a traveler last week who a super frequent flyer stays in Marriott all the time and it's not a resort it's a City Hotel in Boston and he decided he's not staying there anymore because they were charging this fee and he got no use out of it that's Wall Street Journal travel columnist Don Gilbertson and that's it for your money briefing this week our supervising producer is Melanie Roy and our executive producer is Chris sinsley I'm your host J.R Whalen thanks for listening and have a great weekend [Music] thank you

Channel: WSJ News

Views: 21,445

Keywords: summer, vacation, summer travel, vacation fees, travel fees, airline fees, hotel fees, resort fees, wsj, your money briefing, airline ticket prices, flight prices, economy tickets, basic economy flights, fees to change flights, u.s. department of transportation, car rental fees, las vegas resort fees, resort fees explained, las vegas hotel prices, package handling fee, delivery fees, strange fees, hotel bill, bellman gratuity, housekeeping fees, credit card fee, pfin

Id: _s1l5inW6UI

Length: 6min 25sec (385 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 09 2023