I recently saw a report about what restaurants were doing to
survive during these tough times. Some tactics, like charging for
bread and $2 for butter, are painful, but straightforward. Others,
like slipping in undersized portions and redesigning the menus to
hide the prices, were deceptive. Unfortunately, a recent trip made
me all too aware of the epidemic of hidden costs, fees and
”
welcome stranger
”
taxes that have now become commonplace. If you have not noticed,
we’re no longer being nickeled and dimed to death
– now it’s strictly big bucks.
I recently saw a report about what restaurants were doing to survive during these tough times. Some tactics, like charging for bread and $2 for butter, are painful, but straightforward. Others, like slipping in undersized portions and redesigning the menus to hide the prices, were deceptive. Unfortunately, a recent trip made me all too aware of the epidemic of hidden costs, fees and “welcome stranger” taxes that have now become commonplace. If you have not noticed, we’re no longer being nickeled and dimed to death – now it’s strictly big bucks.
A Get Away Air Fare from San Jose to Los Angeles and return is only $49.30 each way, and that’s a bargain. However, when you go to fork over your $98.60 you’ll find you’re more than $28 short; the full cost is $127. This includes $14.40 in U.S. taxes, $5 in security fees and $9 for a PFC – that’s a “passenger facility charge.” I just assumed that the aircraft was going to use an airport anyway and by flying I was entitled to use it free, silly me.
One would think that any airport that charges $40 a day for less than 200 square feet of short-term parking or $15 a day for long-term parking and several dollars for a bottle of water wouldn’t need to be associated with a racket that has passenger facility charges – well, you’d be wrong. The cost of short-term parking is the equivalent of paying $12,000 a month for a 2,000 square-foot home. Even long-term equals $4,500 a month, and that’s pricey concrete in a depressed housing market.
We didn’t go on that trip. We went from San Francisco to Minneapolis to visit family instead, but it was the same story. First, the airlines seem determined to make us feel inferior. After those needing extra help, they started going though a list of preferred passenger groups named after more metals then you find in a science class; “We are first boarding the Platinum passengers, followed by the Gold, Silver, Bronze, Copper and Tin passengers.” Finally, at the end it was our turn. We would have been in the Pot-Metal group, if they had one. At least they did not charge extra for the humiliation. If you think I’m complaining you should have heard the guy two rows in front of us who paid four times the amount for his ticket – well, he did land two rows ahead of us.
We had cheap tickets, but the taxes and fees were $78. If you wanted to sit in the emergency exit aisle with enough knee room for an actual human being, that’s an extra $35; curbside check-in – $2 per bag, and a second checked bag was $25 each way and on and on. Luckily, we could afford a ticket to sit inside the plane, but those passengers holding on to the wing were truly miserable.
Once on the ground there was no relief. The charge for my rental car included $13.37 for a “concession fee recovery.” This is just another way for the airport to soak the customer; they get the car rental company to do it for them. There is also a “rental auto facility charge” of $9 and a 15.850 percent tax ($18.87). Now, where would they come up with a number like that? I guess it looks better than 16 percent. That’s $41.24 extra if you’re not counting.
Naturally, the city and state made sure we paid through the nose if we did not sleep in the street. Between them, they got us for 13.65 percent in taxes on the room rate; in round numbers, it was $57 for our 3 nights.
Just the other day I received a big check from Uncle Sam. According to the newspapers, the Feds want me to spend it all as soon as possible to revive the economy. Well, with the help of all those fees and taxes, I’m spending as fast as I can, believe me. By the way, please deposit $2.77 for reading this article; we appreciate it if you have exact change.
