When you go to book an flight it can be difficult to estimate the final cost until you are actually boarding the plane because of all the fees and taxes that get added on. ABC News published a great article on these excessive fees, and what the future will hold for them. You can find a section of the piece below, or head on over to ABC News.com for the full text.
So you're at JFK and there's your grandma, waiting in line at security, when she gets pulled aside by the TSA for a "special" going-over (while you do a slow burn). Guess what? You're paying for that.
You might be surprised at some of the things you pay for, courtesy of all those taxes and fees levied on that airline ticket of yours. I don't think you'd mind paying some of them, but it's not cheap -- and if you think the taxes and fees make up about 10 percent of your ticket price or so, think again.
Here's an example: you're so jazzed that you've scored one of those elusive $99 each-way cross country fares that you don't even care that it's not a nonstop. However, it's not a $200 fare either, not when you add in the taxes and fees. Let me show the figures for this roundtrip airfare:
Base airfare: $200
Federal Excise Tax: $15
Federal Flight Segment Tax: $14.80
Passenger Facility Charge: $18 (Note this charge can vary and may be lower.)
September 11 Fee: $10
Total airfare: $200. Total taxes and fees: $57.80 for a total ticket price of $257.80. And the taxes and fees represent 28.9 percent of your ticket -- almost 30 percent. Of course, this doesn't include a checked-bag fee (or Spirit's new carry-on fee, which could cost as much as $45 each-way).