Airlines involved in price-fixing of fuel surcharges on clarkhoward.com

The price-fixing of fuel surcharges is something that really burns Clark up. When the cost of a barrel of oil dropped, the surcharges did not go away. Anyone smell a rat here?

The Wall Street Journal reports that this rat may be bigger than previously thought. The CEO of Virgin Atlantic Airways admits he was involved in the price-fixing of fuel surcharges with British Airways and other unnamed airlines.

Need another clear indication that fuel surcharges are just a bogus ploy? Consider this: A shorter international flight often has a higher surcharge than a longer flight.

There is a simple way to fix this: Require airlines to quote the entire price of a ticket (including fuel surcharges) in advertisements, to travel agents and on the web.

Clark is upset that no one at Virgin or BA is going to prison over this debacle. Every executive involved at every airline should go to jail. Monetary slaps on the wrist are not enough.

On a brighter note, airfares for both domestic and international travel will be fantastic this fall. Why? Air travel is discretionary and people simply aren't traveling like they once did. So look for deals from September up to mid-December -- except right around Thanksgiving.

And when you get where you're going, the hotel rates will be great too. The Smith Travel Research firm says the average room rate has dropped 10% year over year.

What others are saying

Double standard in UK Air Surcharges?
While a r/t on American from JFK to LHR costs $140 in taxes, fees and surcharges, Virgin (as of today) wants $380, a whopping 170% or so difference. Virgin still doesn't break down for the consumer what taxes, fees and surcharges are being levied, making it hard to determine why American is allowed to charge less on the exact same route. Considering what this article mentions, I think Virgin is up to something extra (no pun intended). They did not respond to my inquiry about this matter.
By Vincent @ 09/14/09 12:26:46 PMreport abuse
nothing is free
how much did the person who cruised to the Bahamas pay for the cruise itself? It was probably a dirt cheap special.. how do they do that- by having foreign staff who make dirt and only survive via tips.. You bought the ticket, read the fine print next time and don't expect a cruise ship with highly paid staff and no tips to cost you nothing extra.. if they paid the waitstaff a liveable non-tip wage your ticket price would sky rocket.. and fuel is bought by contracts.. so they are still charging the fuel surcharge because they had to buy the contract when the price was high.
By AKRBT @ 07/20/09 03:49:47 AMreport abuse
Fuel Surcharges
As a buyer, I saw similar issues with some vendors when fuel charges skyrocketed last year. All of my purchase orders now state that fuel surcharges are not allowed unless they are quoted on the purchase order!
By John @ 07/19/09 07:14:17 AMreport abuse
cruises are a rip off
I last went on a cruise about 5 years ago. And I won't go again probably. Between the junk fees, long lines to get on the boat at entry and every port of call because of them strip searching you lest you try to sneak a 25 cent can of pop on board, the cattle car mentality like the airlines, bugged every 2 minutes to buy a drink, the mandatory "tips", and I could go on and on. And did I mention, the food is now average at best.
By brian @ 07/18/09 06:15:50 PMreport abuse
surcharges
the cruise industry is bad about extras as well last new years eve we went on a cruise from Miami to Bahamas about 200 miles each way...we paid $11 per day per person fuel surcharge even though the price of oil was under $40 a barrel by then...NCL claimed to cut the surcharge on all cruises after Jan 1...but that didnt help us any....and they charged us the same as passengers on much longer itineraries....the fuel surcharges probably paid the entire fuel bill for our specific cruise...plus they reserve the right to reinstate fuel surcharges if the price of oil goes above $60 or $65 a barrel...dont know if they have reinstated it or if it depends on the price of oil the day of your departure or what but i felt ripped off and the company had a blanket policy with no concern for customers like us....they also have more unadvertised fees than any other industry....fees for soda cards if you want soft drinks during your cruise can be $7 a day and have to be purchased at the beginning of the cruise for the whole length of the cruise...oh and they add a 15% gratuity charge to that fee for the bartenders that pour the soda...they also get 75 cents to open a $5 can of beer for you...no exceptions or having it taken off the bill....we got souvineer glasses for an extra $2 per glass which they also hit with the 15% gratuity... and when you complain to the purser and try to have these charges removed they give excuses like the computer wont let us and they make it difficult to protest. they also hit you with $10 per person per day tipping for their underpaid staff...convienently added to your bill....personally i leave cash for just the people who take care of me (room stewards and waiters) screw the maitre de' he gets $1.50 a day because he stopped by my table once and said hello...i dont think so....they also make it hard to have the tipping charges removed (if its not voluntary call it a service charge not a tip!)
so it's not just airlines with their annoying add on fees, or airports with their segment fees, 9/11 fees, and passenger facility fees....it's all big greedy transportation companies...personally i tell them all to bite me....I fly with frequent flier miles earned through credit cards, I will let all the new cruise ship cabins built in the last couple of years go empty even at sale prices (if they have fuel surcharges, screw the greedy dogs) maybe they will come down in price when they sale half full a few times....the only reason i went on the new years cruise is because Harrah's casinos partnered with NCL and comped the balcony cabin for us...we just had to pay $700 combined in taxes, fees and port charges for our weeklong cruise.
By Dave @ 07/17/09 06:34:27 PMreport abuse
Not Just the Airlines
Government - both foreign and domestic slap addition fees and taxes on airline tickets especially for international travel. Why is there an additional $136 in taxes on a round-trip ticket from Atlanta to London?? Because it is a cash cow to governments as fuel surcharges are to airlines. Security is the excuse but income is the reason.

A year ago cruise lines had a fuel surcharge to each ticket they sold but as the price of fuel drop, the surcharge dropped and finally disappeared.

Car rental companies are even worse. The added fees, taxes, usage permits, facility charge, stadium surcharge, etc. adds up to be more than the ost of the car rental itself.

Taxation WITHOUT representation has run wild.
By J.J. @ 07/17/09 02:53:28 PMreport abuse
Stamp price increases only purpose are nothing more than to support the pay increases of the union postal workers. The amount of business the postal service gets could drop 50% and it wouldn't matter. They wont cut anything and they will still get their raises no matter what. Gotta love the efficiency of a government run entity!

As for the airlines...this is another industry that is full of corruption, IMO. At current fuel price levels, there is no reason for any fuel surcharge. I work in accounting at my company and there are still vendors that we do business with that try to sneak fuel surcharges onto their invoices...at the same amount as when gas was $4+ per gallon! We don't pay them and they usually back off pretty quick when we complain, but still it seems companies may be using the fuel "surcharge" as nothing more than additional income.
By mjd77 @ 07/17/09 01:05:32 PMreport abuse
Airlines taking advantage?
Imagine that, pay for bags, cancel flights with no backup plans, schedule pilots with overtime, sit on runways.
They also conspire to keep Southwest Airlines out of Atlanta completely, to protect the interests of Delta, Continental, and US Airways. The system is broke.
By TwoSox @ 07/17/09 12:13:55 PMreport abuse
Kinda what the USPS is doing.
Didn't the postal service raise the cost of stamps because the cost of fuel went up? Now that is has gone down, why did the stamps go up again?
By NANDO @ 07/17/09 01:34:35 AMreport abuse

Double standard in UK Air Surcharges?

While a r/t on American from JFK to LHR costs $140 in taxes, fees and surcharges, Virgin (as of today) wants $380, a whopping 170% or so difference. Virgin still doesn't break down for the consumer what taxes, fees and surcharges are being levied, making it hard to determine why American is allowed to charge less on the exact same route. Considering what this article mentions, I think Virgin is up to something extra (no pun intended). They did not respond to my inquiry about this matter.

By Vincent @ 09/14/09 12:26:46 PMreport abuse

nothing is free

how much did the person who cruised to the Bahamas pay for the cruise itself? It was probably a dirt cheap special.. how do they do that- by having foreign staff who make dirt and only survive via tips.. You bought the ticket, read the fine print next time and don't expect a cruise ship with highly paid staff and no tips to cost you nothing extra.. if they paid the waitstaff a liveable non-tip wage your ticket price would sky rocket.. and fuel is bought by contracts.. so they are still charging the fuel surcharge because they had to buy the contract when the price was high.

By AKRBT @ 07/20/09 03:49:47 AMreport abuse

Fuel Surcharges

As a buyer, I saw similar issues with some vendors when fuel charges skyrocketed last year. All of my purchase orders now state that fuel surcharges are not allowed unless they are quoted on the purchase order!

By John @ 07/19/09 07:14:17 AMreport abuse

cruises are a rip off

I last went on a cruise about 5 years ago. And I won't go again probably. Between the junk fees, long lines to get on the boat at entry and every port of call because of them strip searching you lest you try to sneak a 25 cent can of pop on board, the cattle car mentality like the airlines, bugged every 2 minutes to buy a drink, the mandatory "tips", and I could go on and on. And did I mention, the food is now average at best.

By brian @ 07/18/09 06:15:50 PMreport abuse

surcharges

the cruise industry is bad about extras as well last new years eve we went on a cruise from Miami to Bahamas about 200 miles each way...we paid $11 per day per person fuel surcharge even though the price of oil was under $40 a barrel by then...NCL claimed to cut the surcharge on all cruises after Jan 1...but that didnt help us any....and they charged us the same as passengers on much longer itineraries....the fuel surcharges probably paid the entire fuel bill for our specific cruise...plus they reserve the right to reinstate fuel surcharges if the price of oil goes above $60 or $65 a barrel...dont know if they have reinstated it or if it depends on the price of oil the day of your departure or what but i felt ripped off and the company had a blanket policy with no concern for customers like us....they also have more unadvertised fees than any other industry....fees for soda cards if you want soft drinks during your cruise can be $7 a day and have to be purchased at the beginning of the cruise for the whole length of the cruise...oh and they add a 15% gratuity charge to that fee for the bartenders that pour the soda...they also get 75 cents to open a $5 can of beer for you...no exceptions or having it taken off the bill....we got souvineer glasses for an extra $2 per glass which they also hit with the 15% gratuity... and when you complain to the purser and try to have these charges removed they give excuses like the computer wont let us and they make it difficult to protest. they also hit you with $10 per person per day tipping for their underpaid staff...convienently added to your bill....personally i leave cash for just the people who take care of me (room stewards and waiters) screw the maitre de' he gets $1.50 a day because he stopped by my table once and said hello...i dont think so....they also make it hard to have the tipping charges removed (if its not voluntary call it a service charge not a tip!)
so it's not just airlines with their annoying add on fees, or airports with their segment fees, 9/11 fees, and passenger facility fees....it's all big greedy transportation companies...personally i tell them all to bite me....I fly with frequent flier miles earned through credit cards, I will let all the new cruise ship cabins built in the last couple of years go empty even at sale prices (if they have fuel surcharges, screw the greedy dogs) maybe they will come down in price when they sale half full a few times....the only reason i went on the new years cruise is because Harrah's casinos partnered with NCL and comped the balcony cabin for us...we just had to pay $700 combined in taxes, fees and port charges for our weeklong cruise.

By Dave @ 07/17/09 06:34:27 PMreport abuse

Not Just the Airlines

Government - both foreign and domestic slap addition fees and taxes on airline tickets especially for international travel. Why is there an additional $136 in taxes on a round-trip ticket from Atlanta to London?? Because it is a cash cow to governments as fuel surcharges are to airlines. Security is the excuse but income is the reason.

A year ago cruise lines had a fuel surcharge to each ticket they sold but as the price of fuel drop, the surcharge dropped and finally disappeared.

Car rental companies are even worse. The added fees, taxes, usage permits, facility charge, stadium surcharge, etc. adds up to be more than the ost of the car rental itself.

Taxation WITHOUT representation has run wild.

By J.J. @ 07/17/09 02:53:28 PMreport abuse

Stamp price increases only purpose are nothing more than to support the pay increases of the union postal workers. The amount of business the postal service gets could drop 50% and it wouldn't matter. They wont cut anything and they will still get their raises no matter what. Gotta love the efficiency of a government run entity!

As for the airlines...this is another industry that is full of corruption, IMO. At current fuel price levels, there is no reason for any fuel surcharge. I work in accounting at my company and there are still vendors that we do business with that try to sneak fuel surcharges onto their invoices...at the same amount as when gas was $4+ per gallon! We don't pay them and they usually back off pretty quick when we complain, but still it seems companies may be using the fuel "surcharge" as nothing more than additional income.

By mjd77 @ 07/17/09 01:05:32 PMreport abuse

Airlines taking advantage?

Imagine that, pay for bags, cancel flights with no backup plans, schedule pilots with overtime, sit on runways.
They also conspire to keep Southwest Airlines out of Atlanta completely, to protect the interests of Delta, Continental, and US Airways. The system is broke.

By TwoSox @ 07/17/09 12:13:55 PMreport abuse

Kinda what the USPS is doing.

Didn't the postal service raise the cost of stamps because the cost of fuel went up? Now that is has gone down, why did the stamps go up again?

By NANDO @ 07/17/09 01:34:35 AMreport abuse

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Jul 16, 2009 -- Airlines involved in price-fixing of fuel surcharges

What others are saying