This is the worst economic climate for decades (“a generation”, as the media say), so what do you expect travel companies to do?

It’s all well and good saying they should inspire people to travel – how?

the reason why charges are appearing against so many products is that travel companies need revenue – and quickly.

cashflow is what is going to save many travel organisations simply because their access to credit has dried up (blame the banks).

i’m not saying charges are necessarily good at all.

but imagine you are a travel organisation and you need cashflow, random charges are simply a quick and way of getting hard funds.

not very pleasant at all – but in some cases these revenue streams will ensure that Company X or Airport Y stays in business.

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What happens when you refuse the service charges? How do they react?

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Minor point – but it may be handy to distinguish between transport companies (rail, train and commoditised accommodation) and leisure travel companies (holidays, experiences, activities, luxury accommodation etc)

When you go on holiday to Venice you are buying some services from transport companies and some from leisure travel companies. The transport ones are surcharging left, right and centre.

Leisure travel businesses are not surcharging as much as transport companies (no evidence for my sweeping statement, incidentally). Probably because they are less used to the yield management mindset (horrible term which basically means, using maths, get the customer to pay as much as they can afford!). Also because leisure travel companies tend to have the customer in their mind when they think of their services. Transport companies of course have the customer in mind, but tend to think in terms of volumes not of individuals.

It is a battle out there for survival. With a survival mindset companies will pretty much do anything. The more interesting question is when the recession ends (hah!) how will all these surcharges be unwound? Are these discretionary charges here to stay?

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Darren, A lot of the charges introduced are discretionary. It is not a new phenomenon as ferry companies were making more from Duty Free Sales than the selling ferry tickets at one time. There was and still is the cost of buying food and goods on board. Theme Parks operate in the same manner by forbidding visitors bringing their own food and then charging above the market rate for food and goods. Even hotels have sold toothbrushes and goods at prices way above average. Train food was never cheap.
If consumers have enough information they can choose to avoid nearly all of these charges.
However a few charges have been introduced that are unavoidable such as the fee to book on line with “Europe’s favourite airline ”. If you are in the UK you cannot avoid this charge. Your blog helps travel consumers know which charges have been introduced so that they can be avoided if possible. If it is not possible then a competing travel company may be the answer.
As for you carrying one carry on bag with your trips. I think that is the way to go. You save loads of hassle lugging or wheeling bags around (I think those wheeled bags are an abomination). No queues to check in bags or at the luggage carousel and finally you keep the weight down on the aircraft so it burns less fuel and so is more sustainable. Finally as you point out you save a fortune.

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I agree with Kevin : “travel companies need revenue – and quickly” and ancillary revenues for travel cies (specially airlines cies) are not new in the market.

Having cut most costs as deeply as they can, airlines are now looking to regain profitability and ancillary revenues from their web site, revenue from third-party service providers and revenues for additionnals services on their operation.

Hope they will find win-win services with their customers

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“£70 will make my trip to Venice that much more enjoyable”

A 30-minute gondola ride. Plus an ice cream. Satisfaction quintupled.

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Darren

I would like to give my opion, but it will cost you 0.01p however there are the following charges to be added before the final price.

Keyboard wear fee £2
Power surcharge £3
Seat replacement fee £2
Government Tax £5
Validation fee £10

we accept all kinds of payment for an additional charge of just £10, however if you have a solo card issued by a German bank, we will not levy this fee.

Opps missed one charge sorry, what a load of rubbish charge!

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My brother is always getting yelled at by the flights because of his hockey bag. He is a goalie so he has a bag big enough to fit two people in it. Many airlines will argue with him to pay ridiculous fees. Some flights will try to charge him when there is no charge listed on their website. I would not be cheap, but if they are not correct then talk to a sup.

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