Bee Travel
Paying for more than you think
CHRISTINE HICKS- USTA Travel

I guess you could say the good news is that one-way fares aren't as blood-draining as they used to be. I remember the apprehension that washed over me when asked what the one-way fare from "A" to "B" was. This paradigm shift is the result of many years of competitive pressure from renegade airlines who changed the very nature of airline pricing. So, when I went to make my reservations at what you might call last-minute (such are deaths in the family - they really shouldn't be planned), I was relatively pleased to see I could get from here to there for what seemed a reasonable sum.

Well, there's reasonable, and then there's what just doesn't seem to have reason. Taxes.

My $278 ticket turned into a $318 ticket when taxes and fees were added. That's 15% in taxes and fees, relative to my airfare. I settled down long enough to reckon this in half, and at $159 each way, I rankled slightly less. Nonetheless, what used to be little has gotten very large.

The airlines aren't alone in this. Cruise lines, too, have seen enormous hikes in their taxes and security fees. I've seen cruise fares nearly matched by port charges on some lines on certain itineraries. I wonder how things got so skewed.

This scenario is not unique to the travel business. Several years ago, I left the country for an extended stay in Europe. I could have had my utilities turned off for the slightly less than three months I was away, but the aggravation and cost of having them reconnected was not worth it to me. In addition, what would my sump pump do without its electric meal service? Even in summer, storms flood un-sumped basements. I was (perhaps naively) surprised to get a bill from the water authority that quarter for just about what the bill was for every quarter previous. Without a single shower, flush, load of laundry, lawn-wa tering or other use of water, I still paid about $25. Turns out the cost of water is virtually zip. It's the getting of it they get you for.

As for taxes, I dissected my phone bill the other day. I expect to pay for long distance calls, and we make plenty of them to friends and family in Holland and Turkey. Locally, however, it's a different story. With DSL and little propensity for speaking on the phone locally, you would think my bill would be less than the long distance portion. Not so. Indeed, the cost of having the phone (in this case) is less than the taxes charged. There is something askew in this universe.

Have you ever noticed that taxes rarely go away, too? In the airline industry, they morph into something new. In the phone business, they rearrange. In government, they nearly always only grow. We pay with our taxed income for things further taxed, not to mention straight out school and town taxes. It's perhaps no wonder so little is left over for the luxury of a little travel.

(Christine Hicks-Usta has enjoyed more than 30 years of globetrotting as a member of the travel industry in various capacities. Direct questions to her at Bee Group Newspapers, P.O. Box 150, Buffalo, N.Y. 14231-0150.)