Tagged: fees

Whoa. WOW Air Collapses, Cancels All Flights—What Should Ticket Holders Do?

Low-cost Icelandic carrier WOW Air abruptly announced that it has ceased operations today. All flights have been canceled, according to a "travel alert" on the company's website, and…

Hotel Booking Sites Are Using These Shady Tactics to Trick You into Booking

Some of the biggest names in hotel booking websites just got chewed out for playing dirty mind games with their customers. The United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA),…

Basic Economy Fares: What You Get and What You Lose, Airline by Airline

Despite what airlines say, "basic economy" fares do not mean lower fares for everyone. In fact, they have increased prices for most of us because they now label the lowest prices as…

Venice Has Adopted the Ultimate Means for Reducing Crowds: Admission Fees

Just about everyone will agree that the worst current problem in travel is overtourism—the crowded conditions in the world’s most popular cities and destinations. In places like…

Smoke on a Carnival Cruise and You Could Get Kicked Off the Ship

Carnival Cruise Line is getting stricter with passengers who light up at sea. The company has updated its tobacco and marijuana smoking policy to include the possibility of removal…

Resort Fees Have Spread to City Hotels Now: How to Get Them Off Your Bill

Resort fees are to be expected today, begrudgingly, at big-sprawling American resorts with pools, private beaches, and grandiose spas. These infuriating fees, which are added daily…

Another New Fee, Courtesy of United Airlines

About five years ago, Saturday Night Live scored some laughs with a skit that parodied "priority boarding" announcements at the airport gate. A uniformed Tina Fey and Taran Killam…

Arthur Frommer: National Parks Devotees Can Utter a (Brief) Sigh of Relief

In the early months of the Trump administration, it was widely rumored that the new head of the Department of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, would propose a doubling of the entrance fees to…

New Zealand to Start Taxing Tourists

The price of a vacation in New Zealand is about to go up. The country's government has announced plans to charge a new tax on tourists, expected to go into effect in the middle of…

"White-Collar Trickery": Arthur Frommer Blasts Las Vegas for Hidden Fees

By now, most Americans are aware of the “resort fees” that numerous greedy hotels add to their bills, even though the hotel in question is by no means a “resort.”  Most of us simply…

Avoid Extra Bag Fees with This Fiendishly Clever Packing Hack

We've all been there. You're packing to return home from a trip, but when everything's in the suitcase, you discover you bought just a tad too much stuff. It won't all fit. The…

In Las Vegas, Now You Have to Look Closely at Your Bill for Hidden Fees

Las Vegas has long been known as Sin City but lately, it’s turned into Fee City. We’ve bemoaned the resort fees that nearly every hotel in Las Vegas charges. But now Sin City is…

Arthur Frommer: A Journalist Produces the Definitive Report on Disney Cruises

Most parents are aware of the ever-expanding Disney cruise line, which enables them to join their young children on a sailing designed to fascinate. Disney currently operates four big…

Disney World Now Charges for Parking at Hotels, Decreasing Their Value

Update: Disney Parks finally rescinded fees for self-parking at Walt Disney World resorts in January 2023. Click here to read about that.It used to be one of the great courtesies of…

Resort Fees Repel Foreign Visitors and Cheat People: They're Destructive for Us All

Americans despise resort fees. But in a shockingly short span of time, we became blasé about them. Appallingly, the people once renowned for feisty individualism and a testy spirit of…

Now You Can Fly Round-Trip to Europe for €399—with a Catch

First, U.S. domestic airlines introduced Basic Economy fares so their rates would appear more competitive with low-cost carriers in Web searches.Now the transatlantic airlines are…

Royal Caribbean Increases the Daily Fee Used to Tip Staff

For the third time in three years, Royal Caribbean Cruises is hiking up its "automatic gratuity"—the term for the service fee that lines recommend each passenger pays per day during a…

Arthur Frommer's Travel Resolutions for the New Year

Because they often seek to regulate all of human activity, I find most New Year’s Resolutions to be rather unsatisfying. Here’s an attempt to limit these rules to the world of travel,…

Hyatt's Cancellation Rules Worsen for Consumers

Hyatt Hotels has made it more expensive for you to cancel a reservation. At most of the company's 700-odd properties, customers must now cancel at least 48 hours ahead of their planned…

Paid Reservations Now Required to Visit California's Muir Woods

From Dubrovnik to Machu Picchu, popular tourist destinations around the world are devising new sign-up strategies to combat overcrowding caused by hordes of temporary visitors.The…

One More Airline Adopts Basic Economy Pricing

Monkey see, monkey do. The biggest airlines have now instituted new, bare-bones "basic economy" fares that strip passengers of the automatic right to checked bags or seat assignments…

National Park Fees May Triple, Become Unaffordable

Entrance fees at many of the country's most popular national parks could soon go way up.To address a backlog of maintenance needs and infrastructure improvements, the National Park…

Norwegian Cruise Line Drinks Package Now the Priciest at Sea

Norwegian Cruise Line has raised the price of its Ultimate Beverage package, covering all alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks that a passenger consumes while on board the ship (except…

U.S. Airlines Are Making a Fortune from Checked Bag Fees

Two recent government reports have underscored the huge revenue-generating power of checked bag fees at the airport. First, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) study found that…

Boston's Logan Airport Might Charge You to Drop Off and Pick Up Passengers

A new fee could soon be put in place at Boston Logan International Airport—and drivers are not going to like it. The airport has launched a study to look into charging people for…