Getting hit with a surprise airline fee at checkout feels awful. You think you’ve found a great deal on a flight, only to watch the price balloon with baggage fees, seat selection charges, and booking costs. For months, there was hope this frustrating experience would finally change.
That hope now sits frozen in legal limbo. The transparency rules that were supposed to force airlines to show you the real cost of flying upfront have been derailed by the courts, leaving travelers still playing a guessing game with airline pricing.
The Blocked Rule That Could Have Changed Everything
A federal appeals court blocked the Department of Transportation’s new rule on upfront disclosure of airline fees in July 2024, dealing a significant setback to the Biden administration. The DOT had released a final rule in April that would mandate airlines to disclose “junk fees” associated with purchasing airfare.
Airlines and ticketing agencies would have to inform passengers of the fees associated with checked baggage, carry-ons, along with changes and cancellations to a reservation. Set to take effect in late April 2025, the new guidelines would force carriers to disclose ancillary charges more clearly, such as those for first and second checked bags, full-size carry-on bags, and change and cancellation fees.
Why Airlines Fought Back Hard
Airlines for America, along with American, Delta, United, JetBlue and Hawaiian filed a lawsuit against the DOT over the junk fee rule, claiming the rule was unnecessary and misguided. They argued that the rule would confuse consumers, and the companies already go to great lengths to make sure customers are knowledgeable about their fees.
Airlines for America also argued that carriers would need to “spend millions” to update their websites, diverting resources away from other initiatives. The financial stakes were enormous. Airlines made around $7.1 billion from baggage fees in 2023, an increase from $6.8 billion in 2022, according to DOT data.
The Court’s Technical Victory for Airlines
A U.S. appeals court blocked the Biden administration’s 2024 rule requiring airlines to reveal service fees upfront, saying the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) had failed to follow proper procedures. A recent court decision returned the rule to the department for revision.
The Court said that while the DOT had the authority to write fee disclosure rules that specifically address “unfair or deceptive practices being conducted by airlines,” the DOT should have given airlines an opportunity to comment on a study used by the agency that looked at the impact of the fee disclosure rules. The appeals court said that only Congress could give the DOT the authority to institute such a rule, and the current FAA Reauthorization Act makes no mention of disclosing junk fees.
What Travelers Are Still Missing on Booking Sites
Even with transparency rules on hold, the hidden fee problem persists across booking platforms. Many third-party travel sites may show the lowest ticket price upfront, but they often hide additional fees or don’t include all airline policies (like baggage rules).
When searching for flights on platforms like Google Flights, you might notice that the initial price often doesn’t include baggage fees. This can result in a significant difference between the initial price and the final cost, potentially adding up to $50 or more per ticket. While Google Flights offers the ability to filter search results by baggage fees, currently this is only available for domestic US flights.
For flights to other destinations, such as across the Atlantic, you should generally assume that the lowest advertised fares don’t come with a free checked bag, with fees potentially reaching $100 or more per bag each way.
The Worst Offenders in Fee Hiding
Research reveals which airlines are the biggest culprits when it comes to concealing true costs. NetVoucherCodes found Spirit Airlines hid the cost of flying the most, with the average flight cost soaring by 736%. Frontier ranked No. 3, and Delta Air Lines was the worst-performing legacy airline at No. 5, with an average increase of 158%. American Airlines was the most transparent on the list with an average increase of just 95%.
If you fly like most people – with a carry-on, a checked bag, a seat assignment and agent assistance – the price of your flight shoots up to $428. That’s a 448% increase. Budget carriers like Spirit and Frontier have perfected this art of deception, showing impossibly low base fares that transform into expensive tickets once you add necessary services.
Hidden Fees Beyond Baggage
Baggage fees are just the tip of the iceberg. In addition to baggage charges, airlines have also found ways to earn more by charging for seat selection. Choosing your seat has become another big moneymaker for airlines, bringing in $4.2 billion in fees last year alone.
When Carolyn DiDonato booked her ticket from Trenton, N.J., to Fort Myers, Fla., she says she was hit with a hidden airline fee. On the last screen, concealed behind a drop-down menu, Frontier Airlines revealed that she would have to pay a nonrefundable $23 carrier interface charge for buying her ticket online. “It was definitely a hidden fee,” says DiDonato.
The Technology Excuse That Doesn’t Hold Water
Airlines claim updating their systems would cost millions, yet they somehow manage to implement new fees overnight. McGee argued that if airlines can quickly implement fees – sometimes overnight – then they should also be able to inform customers about them.
Airlines often use APIs to manage the flow of data to third-party platforms, however limitations to those APIs can prevent those OTAs from showcasing the most current flight information.
Furthermore, OTAs use intricate algorithms to price flights, dynamically adjusting in response to forecasted demand, competitor price shifts, and historical data; these automated tools might react slower than airline’s internal systems, causing delays. The technology exists; the will to implement true transparency does not.
What Booking Platforms Actually Hide
The complexity goes far beyond simple baggage fees. What appears on an OTA is not always the complete picture either since low prices often get advertised without upfront visibility of all the service charges. Such opaque fee structures can result in a final cost that is much higher than initially expected and can vary dramatically according to market-specific factors which is very hard to track.
Airlines and travel sites often wait to tack on all those hidden taxes and fees until you are ready to pay. Many airlines charge booking fees when you purchase tickets through their website or call center.
These fees can vary significantly between carriers and might appear as “service charges” or “convenience fees.” Some airlines even charge extra for booking with a human agent rather than using their online platform.
The Psychology Behind Fee Deception
Airlines understand exactly how our brains work when it comes to pricing. Since budget airlines rose to prominence over a decade ago, airlines have been exploiting a quirk in human purchasing psychology: We’re attracted to low initial prices and tend to overlook high total costs when fees are “dripped” out slowly.
Indeed, it’s been shown that consumers systematically make suboptimal decisions when prices are dripped throughout the checkout process rather than disclosed up front, according to a 2020 study in Harvard Business School’s journal Marketing Science.
Frontier says passengers prefer to see a low fare first. De La Cruz says its model also pressures other airlines to reduce their fares to remain competitive. This creates a race to the bottom in advertised prices while the real costs remain hidden until the last moment.
International Comparison Shopping Nightmares
The fee transparency problem becomes even worse for international travel. There’s evidence to suggest that pricing can shift considerably from one market to the next, due to varying factors – for example, supply and demand. Some international routes can be drastically more expensive, making it very difficult to consistently find the very best fares if you don’t conduct a thorough study.
Just try booking a flight in Europe, Australia or Southeast Asia, and you’ll encounter the same problem. Many airlines, especially discount carriers, quote a dirt-cheap base fare. The lack of global standards means travelers face different levels of deception depending on where they’re flying.
The Financial Impact on Families
Families might face the brunt of these fees, especially with additional luggage charges for children. Meanwhile, frequent flyers transitioning between budget-friendly and full-service airlines may inadvertently pay more due to fluctuating booking or baggage policies.
A family of four booking return flights from Singapore to Bali might pay SGD 180 for base tickets. But with extras like SGD 30 baggage fees per person, SGD 15 seat selection fees, and a booking fee of SGD 20, the total quickly jumps to SGD 300 or more – nearly double the original price. Understanding these potential pitfalls highlights why avoiding hidden fees is critical to sticking to your travel budget.
Current Workarounds That Don’t Work
Some booking platforms claim they’re solving the transparency problem, but the reality is mixed. To ensure that we are able to compare the best prices, momondo requires that all of its travel suppliers (the companies that provide the actual tickets) include all mandatory fees in the price that we show on our website – so there are no surprises. We display the lowest prices available, including all mandatory fees, because every traveler has individual needs.
Yet many other platforms haven’t followed suit. Google tried to convince the DOT that the current model, in which search engines like Google Flights display base prices without junk fees, is good enough. This resistance from major tech companies shows how entrenched the current deceptive pricing model has become.
The Real Cost of Regulatory Delays
With the transparency rule blocked, travelers continue to pay the price. This could save airline passengers $500 million a year, the agency said. In total, thanks to this final rule, consumers are expected to save over $500 million annually that they are currently overpaying in hidden airline fees.
According to an estimate released by DOT, consumers were paying an additional US$543 million annually in surprise fees, mostly baggage charges that were more expensive at the airport than when booked in advance. Every month the rule remains blocked means millions more in unnecessary costs for travelers.
What’s Next for Airline Transparency
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has vowed to continue the DOT’s push for price transparency changes despite the appeals court ruling. “The airline industry lobby is trying to tie this up with lawsuits, but we will not back down from protecting passengers,” Buttigieg wrote on the social media platform X. “Airlines are simply wrong to argue that merely having to disclose their fees would ‘irreparably harm’ them.”
The court’s ruling is a setback for airline fee transparency but does not stop the DOT from pursuing similar regulations. The decision leaves the door ajar: Will the DOT move forward with a revised rule, or does fee transparency remain in the airlines? Meanwhile, other industries are moving toward transparency, with hotels facing new disclosure requirements that airlines continue to resist.
The battle over airline fee transparency isn’t over, but for now, travelers remain stuck in a system designed to deceive. Until real transparency arrives, the best defense is knowing that the advertised price is rarely the price you’ll actually pay.
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