• What's triprights?
• About triprights
• Contact us

t o p i c s

• Fix My Trip
• Rights Sites
• Do it Yourself
• Travel Notes

Copyright 1996-2004 Elliott Publishing. All rights reserved.

Spring Broke
Fix My Trip · February 27, 2002

Q: I've been shopping online for a spring break trip, and I noticed that some companies are now charging a security fee and fuel surcharge.

For example, Springbreakdirect.com has imposed a $45 per person security fee and "small" fuel surcharge. StudentExpress.com and StudentCity.com are charging $35 per person.

Fuel prices are very low right now and I've never heard of a security fee. They say that they are charging all existing and new customers these "fees and surcharges." Are these legitimate? Or is this a shameless attempt to take advantage of college students and the events of September 11?

-- Jeff Walter

A: The charges are legitimate, in one sense. If you check the contract that you're asked to sign with these websites, it's very clear that the price of your vacation can change.

For example, Springbreakdirect's fine print says it can alter the price of your trip if "fuel-related increases or surcharges are imposed" on the company. "If at this time your trip price increases by more than 10 percent, you will have seven days from notification to accept this increase, or receive a full refund."

Is this a shameless attempt to take advantage of college students? Absolutely.

As you correctly point out, fuel costs remain low. Many airlines have removed or modified their fuel surcharges. It is extremely unlikely that the tour operators selling their products through these spring break websites are being asked to fork over an additional fee by the airlines. What's more, the security surcharge, which went into effect February 1, is no more than $10 per ticket.

So what's happening here? That's a question I put to Nils Dennis, the owner of Springbreakdirect.com. He says between February 14 and 18, his tour operators began asking for anywhere from $35 to $50 extra per itinerary. He decided to take the average number and retroactively bill his customers.

"Yes, it seems as if we're jacking our rates up," he told me. "But you have to understand what's behind the fees."

I'm struggling to make sense of the reasons for this sudden price increase. The tour operators working with these websites have known for a while that a per-ticket security surcharge would go into effect after February 1. What's more, the fuel surcharges last year for these types of packages were actually less than they are now. If fuel prices are going down, then how can the fuel surcharge go up? (Even if, for argument's sake, fuel prices were edging higher, then why haven't other travel agents imposed a comparable fee?)

Here's what I think is happening. Some unscrupulous tour operators saw an opportunity to fatten their profits after February 1. They put the spring break market in their crosshairs because of its short season and because college students often don't have the time to read the fine print on their contracts. And then they fired away.

The websites claim to be caught in the figurative crossfire, and they may be. They can't afford to absorb the price hike, so they're passing the increase along to their customers. "Fuel prices are down, but many airlines are still charging a surcharge anyway as a result of enormous losses following September 11 on some domestic and international flights," says Jim Moldane, a spokesman for StudentExpress.com.

Still, I suspect that some of the surcharges are completely fictitious. Consider the timing of the new fee, almost two weeks after the new ticket security charge went into effect. Were the tour operators absorbing the cost until then? I doubt it. Did airline fuel costs spike in late January? Nope.

Bottom line: If you're thinking of booking a spring break trip, make sure you ask about any additional fees. If you don't like what you hear, you might want to consider either driving to your destination or buy a ticket through a website that doesn't charge these fees.

Christopher Elliott is a travel commentator based in Key Largo, Fla. All e-mailed questions may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion. Fix My Trip appears weekly on this site.