Airline fees: Airlines have raised some fees for premium seats
"The airlines are continuing to look at ways they can charge fees to make a profit," said Matt Daimler founder of SeatGuru.com, which tracks airline-seating information and seat-pitch data.
SeatGuru"s online polls in recent years have showed that travelers would be willing to pay up to 10 percent more for a seat with more legroom, Daimler said.
Get Orlando Sentinel"s exclusive 2012 shuttle calendarAmerican, the top carrier at Miami International Airport, in August bumped up the number of "preferred" seats, which involve a fee, unless you"re an elite status flier. Window and aisle seats near the front of the main cabin are priced from $4 a flight.
Delta, the busiest airline at Palm Beach International Airport, recently launched "Economy Comfort," its name for premium economy seats priced from $80 to $160 extra each way. They offer four more inches of legroom on long-haul international flights and recline 50 percent more than standard international economy-class seats.
Delta plans to add Economy Comfort to the rest of its fleet, including smaller regional jets by summer 2012. The first 757 will begin operating with an "Economy Comfort" section in November.
Passengers traveling on a one-way itinerary will pay an extra introductory fee of $19-$99 for the seats, starting in late spring for summer travel.
The new seats will be in the first three-to-five rows of the economy cabin and fliers who purchase them will board before other economy customers.
JetBlue Airways – the second largest carrier at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International in the 10 months ended September 30 - added what it calls an "Even More Space" option earlier this year. This service gives fliers early boarding and early access to overhead bin space and seats with extra legroom in select front and emergency rows on its aircraft. The fee varies but starts at $10 for short-haul flights.
If you don"t want to pay extra for the extra legroom or comfy seat, travel experts suggest waiting until the day of your flight.
To avoid seat fees, one trick is not to choose a seat during check-in. By refraining, chances are fliers will get a premium economy seat for free, Hobica said.
"The only downside is that seat might be in the middle rather than on an aisle," he said.
That strategy worked for attorney Andrea Madigan who was assigned aisle seat 6C on a recent Frontier flight from Denver to Fort Lauderdale after she declined to pay extra for a "better" seat during online check-in.
"I got a good one [seat]," said Madigan, who flew on a cheap $250 round trip economy fare and didn"t want to shell out more for a seat.
asatchell@tribune.com, 954-356-4209 or Twitter @TheSatchreport.
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