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US airlines are pushing to remove protections for passengers and add more fees

(www.travelandtourworld.com)
663 points duxup | 3 comments | 24 Sep 25 12:30 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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geff82 ◴[24 Sep 25 14:34 UTC] No.45361019[source]▶
Book trips from European websites in the future. Prices here need to include everything upfront. Which might lead to situations where you reserve a hotel room in the USA for 1500, but then only pay 1200 at checkout because the remaining 300 are the "resort fee" that will be paid at the hotel. Or take car rental: the cheaper, more complete packages for the USA are often booked in the EU at at better price.
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octo888 ◴[24 Sep 25 15:28 UTC] No.45361739[source]▶
> Prices here need to include everything upfront

How are you defining "everything" and "upfront"? Upfront as in the first page shown after searching?

Because many, many airlines/car rental sites have a complex muti-step process of different fares, extras etc until you get to the final stage

replies(1): >>45362595 #
hn8726 ◴[24 Sep 25 16:25 UTC] No.45362595[source]▶
Can you give an example? I just checked a random rental website for France and I got a very clear `From $xx` price and I could — in one step — go to checkout with that exact price by simply not selecting any other options.

Sure you will have upsells but if a price for a service is presented, that should be a final price. You can't tack on "resort fees", the price presented must be inclusive of all the required charges. For example as much as I dislike Booking.com, the price they show for a room includes everything — tax, mandatory cleaning fee and city tax if applicable.

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1. slaw ◴[24 Sep 25 19:58 UTC] No.45365268[source]▶
https://www.kayak.com/cars/San-Jose,Costa-Rica-c30707/2025-1...

You can go to the last page and book rental. Only at the airport counter you will learn, there are extra fees you need to pay.

replies(2): >>45367377 #>>45370210 #
2. octo888 ◴[24 Sep 25 23:47 UTC] No.45367377[source]▶
LOL there is literally a "$0 total" deal ($0.24 rounded down). At least it's REALLY obvious it's a scam:

  Due today: $0.00
  Due at car rental counter: $0.24
  Car rental: $0.20 Scg - lpf $0.01Scg - iva $0.03"
I'm guessing there is some crazy location fee, mandatory insurance at an inflated price and/or "oops the car you booked isn't available"?
3. hn8726 ◴[25 Sep 25 07:36 UTC] No.45370210[source]▶
I did that — picked a booking, it redirected me to Expedia and showed a $0 rental! But then when I changed my region on the top bar from US to "Rest of Europe", that booking no longer worked. When I then search (on Expedia) for the same location and dates, I get very believable prices (200-300 EUR). When I change the region back to the US and search again directly on Expedia, I see the same scam $0 offer as previously.

I think this supports precisely my point — in EU all the fees are presented such that you can get the service without any hidden costs