The Curmudgeon
June 21, 2010 | Uncategorized
Okay, so I’m a curmudgeon.
But I’m really annoyed, pissed, aggravated, perturbed and had enough of travel companies gouging me.
We all sat back and quietly watched as airlines piled on ancillary fees. $15 for checking a bag, $5 for this, $7 for that. According to DOT the pile grew to $7.8 billion in airline ancillary fees in 2009.
Then hotels joined the gouge-a-thon. The Wynn Las Vegas, among others, has instituted a $20 resort fee which covers “certain complimentary select hotel amenities.” But Wynn doesn’t specify what amenities it includes.
And now car rental companies have skidded into the act.
Today I tried to rent a car in Sacramento for late Friday night next week, and return it to San Francisco midday on Tuesday. I had gone online through my insurance company since it provides a discounted rate with Avis and Hertz.
I had only been online for two minutes when it became apparent that either 1) the computers at Avis and Hertz were under attack by hackers, or 2) the rates were being set by someone with the business acumen of Little Orphan Annie.
Just a few months ago I would have been charged a rate of about $53 per day with unlimited mileage. Today forget about unlimited anything.
Although Avis’ daily rate remains unchanged, they’ve now tacked on a charge of 25¢ per mile. Agh-h-h-h-h.
And, on top of that, I’m also required to pay an “Airport Concession Fee Recovery” ($33.76), a “Vehicle Licensing Cost Recovery” (a bargain at $1.60), a California Tourism Commission Assessment ($10.59) and a tax of $29.56 which brought my estimated bill to about $450.
According to USA Today Avis recently reported its ancillary revenues have grown 12% on a per-rental-day basis. Well, stupid me — I always thought those fees were just the normal cost of doing business.
But you know what? The tacked-on-fee ball is rolling and picking up speed. And pretty soon all travel businesses will be tacking on as many fees as they think they can get away with until we all start screaming “enough Annie!”
Just remember Hertz, Avis and the rest of you, I’m not Daddy Warbucks.
And the sun ain’t coming up tomorrow if you keep gouging all of us like this.
Jim Ferri
