US travelers who might have found airfares a bit more expensive for domestic flights compared to international flights need not be confused anymore. Famed flight ticket booking application Hopper introduces its new "Fair Bear" feature that would detail all the fees associated with flights -- particularly the ones written in the terms and conditions travelers skip often for obvious reasons.
According to Business Traveller, the "Fair Bear" would provide information about flight cancellations and changes, carry-on and checked luggage, and seat selection where available. Airlines unintentionally hide these fees from passengers through lengthy-read terms and conditions.
The arrival and development of "basic economy fares" promises to drop all costs for flight cancellations and changes, seat assignment and possible upgrades. Luggage are without question only carry-on to help travelers save in flights. But it feels like a transition from postpaid to prepaid phone service -- making additional unplanned purchases for carry-on bags more hidden and costly for unwise travelers for example.
According to Hopper's analysis of current airfares for US domestic flights, someone flying from Denver to Minneapolis could spend an average of $287 for changing or cancelling their flight. The costs are somewhat less with international flights -- $250 is the primary charge for changing a flight. Hopper indicates that "ancillary revenues," profits earned from flight changes and cancellations, luggage costs and seat selection, had cost travelers $67.4 billion worldwide.
The confusion is bound to stay as basic economy tickets and other "budget flights" claim to avoid all these "unnecessary costs." The "Fair Bear" feature, according to CIO, would filter out basic economy tickets" and instead introduce competitively-priced flight tickets. CIO said there were limitations such as "Fair Bear" not "allowing a choice for the carry-on bag and seat selection" to see the grand total of the amount passengers would spend.
The "Fair Bear" feature for Hopper is available now for both Android and iOs.
