The fees that spell trouble
Jun 6th 2012, 15:45 by A.B.
ANCILLARY fees have proliferated in recent years, with airlines and other travel-industry companies increasingly choosing to offer very basic services as standard and then to make money out of add-ons. On a modern-day business trip, indeed, the fees never seem to stop. And when it's time to sort out the receipts, it is often difficult for travellers to get full recompense for all the extra items they have been required to buy. To help travel planners work out where to focus their attention, the Global Business Travel Association Foundation, which is the research arm of the GBTA, has come up with a list of the ten most problematic ancillary fees—those that are most likely to annoy both the traveller and the bean-counters in Accounts.
The GBTA assessed 43 fees that a traveller might encounter in terms of their frequency (is the fee commonly applied and/or frequently paid?), their transparency (how predictable is the fee?), and the ease with which a travel manager can track them. The fees that made it to the top of the list are not necessarily the most expensive ones, but those that travellers are most likely to struggle to get refunded. Pay them at your peril.
GBTA's most problematic fees
1. Airline fees for soft drinks
2. Airline fees for headset use
3. Airline fees for movies and videos
4. Airline fees for food
5. Car rental fees for toll passage
6. Hotel related fees for internet use
7. Hotel related fees for parking
8. Car rental fees for late returns
9. Car rental fees for drop-off of a one-way rental
10. Car rental fees for fuel charge.
(The least problematic of the fees considered was paid-for lounge access: infrequent, transparent and easily trackable.)
Jun 6th 2012, 15:45 by A.B.
ANCILLARY fees have proliferated in recent years, with airlines and other travel-industry companies increasingly choosing to offer very basic services as standard and then to make money out of add-ons. On a modern-day business trip, indeed, the fees never seem to stop. And when it's time to sort out the receipts, it is often difficult for travellers to get full recompense for all the extra items they have been required to buy. To help travel planners work out where to focus their attention, the Global Business Travel Association Foundation, which is the research arm of the GBTA, has come up with a list of the ten most problematic ancillary fees—those that are most likely to annoy both the traveller and the bean-counters in Accounts.
The GBTA assessed 43 fees that a traveller might encounter in terms of their frequency (is the fee commonly applied and/or frequently paid?), their transparency (how predictable is the fee?), and the ease with which a travel manager can track them. The fees that made it to the top of the list are not necessarily the most expensive ones, but those that travellers are most likely to struggle to get refunded. Pay them at your peril.
GBTA's most problematic fees
1. Airline fees for soft drinks
2. Airline fees for headset use
3. Airline fees for movies and videos
4. Airline fees for food
5. Car rental fees for toll passage
6. Hotel related fees for internet use
7. Hotel related fees for parking
8. Car rental fees for late returns
9. Car rental fees for drop-off of a one-way rental
10. Car rental fees for fuel charge.
(The least problematic of the fees considered was paid-for lounge access: infrequent, transparent and easily trackable.)
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