"There's a ton of ancillary fees that carriers continue to add on — priority boarding fees, charges for Wi-Fi, or charges like the fee American just announced for pillows and blankets," said Bryan Saltzburg, the head of initiatives at TripAdvisor.com.
And though the airline industry is making billions from ancillary fees, the bloodletting is continuing.
For passengers, ancillary fees are a large and increasing part of air travel costs, in some cases accounting for an additional 20 percent of the cost of a ticket, counting add-on charges for things like checked bags, changed itineraries, in-flight food, seat selection and other services.
As for other so-called ancillary fees charged by airlines, spending increased by 11.3 percent for priority access, as business travelers struggled to deal with the worsening boarding-area scrums.
"If they budget $10 million for air travel, and ancillary fees are 10 percent, now they're going to be spending $11 million," Mr. Steiner said.
A study of more than 200 airlines by Amadeus, a company that provides technology to the travel industry, and IdeaWorks, a consulting organisation, reveals that carriers are expected to collect $32.5 billion in ancillary fees this year, for everything from baggage and onboard meals to advertising revenue.
Now consider that in many cases, passengers had prepaid not just the fare, but also some of those ancillary fees, like charges for checked bags and priority seat selection.
The changes also allow for students to opt-out of certain ancillary fees.
"It has been more and more challenging getting hotels to waive these ancillary fees," said Lori Jenaire, who negotiates arrangements for meetings and conferences for clients at ConferenceDirect.
