Air travel frustration spikes with fees, security

“It takes more time and so you have to leave earlier and earlier to go to the airport. Most of the time you just wind up sitting… but you don’t know what the lines are going to be like.”

Leff said it’s not clear that any of the security measures being taken — including putting people through full-body scanners and producing detailed images in what he jokingly called “nudiscope” — actually protect travelers.

“It’s mostly silliness,” Leff, 35, said. “If I’m a terrorist, I’m happy, right? Look at what I’ve caused.”

Industry responds

The Air Transport Association, which represents the nation’s major airlines, countered that the new security measures are designed to enhance passenger safety and are being implemented with the least amount of inconvenience possible.

The group also defended the fees being added by the airlines.

“These fees are not just about more revenue,” wrote Victoria Day, a spokeswoman for the Air Transport Association, in an e-mail. “Most customers tell us that they prefer to choose what services they pay for if it means that they can get the lowest possible fare.”

But for some travelers, the layers of inconvenience have become just too much.

About 27 percent of people who flew round trip at least twice during the past year are more likely now than in the past to skip flying and choose another method of transportation, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll taken earlier this month.

The survey also found 76 percent of respondents are dissatisfied with luggage and flight rebooking fees.

The irony is that the extra fees aren’t working for the airlines, said Joe Brancatelli, who flies dozens of times a year and runs JoeSentMe.com, a Web site for business travelers.

“It’s hurting their business. They’re losing their customers,” he said.

Still, the airlines reported collecting nearly $740 million in baggage fees in the third quarter of 2009, according to U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

There is a lot of uncertainty for the large airlines going forward, said Betsy Snyder, an airline credit analyst at Standard & Poor’s. But she predicted this year will likely be better for them than 2009, although it won’t be a profitable one.

It’s “too soon to tell” how new security measures and fees will impact the industry, she said. The pace of economic recovery and fuel prices also will figure into how well the airlines perform.

If Brancatelli is any indication, passenger patience may be running out. He recently decided against buying a ticket from a Spanish airline because he couldn’t figure out what he was getting for the price quoted on its Web site and whether he would have to pay additional fees for a seat assignment, advanced boarding and checked luggage.

Meanwhile, business travelers have been complaining to him about “insane inconsistency” in airport security.

“Right now, we’re at a very low period for leisure and business travel, so we’re not seeing the full impact. If this is still going on around March or April… it could be chaos,” Brancatelli said.