Flight prices have come down, but some airline fees are on the rise

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Monday, February 26, 2024 - By John Mazerolle

Here’s what you need to know to get the day started:

Flight prices have come down, but some airline fees are on the rise

WestJet is hiking first and second checked bag fees by $5 for travel booked on or after Feb. 15. (Daniel Thomas/CBC )

Here’s the good news: Airfares have declined in Canada. The bad news? You might wind up paying more in added fees. WestJet, along with several U.S. airlines, recently hiked its checked bag charges. And Flair Airlines has a new fee: a charge for paying for your flight with a credit card.

Industry experts warn that if passengers aren't careful, they may wind up paying far more than anticipated. Airlines "absolutely entice you with the low cost of the ticket ... but then that low price is not as low as it appears with the ancillary fees," said Karl Moore, an associate professor at McGill University who studies the industry. Passengers might "get caught with another $100 in fees they weren't expecting, which means profits for the airlines," he said.

After airfares declined by 14.3 per cent in 2023, WestJet introduced two checked bag price hikes. The airline now charges an extra $5 for checked luggage for travel booked after Feb. 14. That means, for an economy fare purchased online, passengers will pay between $35 and $42 for the first checked bag and between $55 and $65 for the second. The increase comes on the heels of a $10 hike WestJet introduced four months ago for passengers who choose to check their bag with an agent at the airport.

WestJet spokesperson Julia Brunet told CBC News in an email that baggage fees allow the airline to "keep base fares lower for all travellers." She said the system-wide $5 hike is WestJet's first since 2018, and that passengers can avoid baggage charges by paying for their flight with a WestJet RBC Mastercard or buying a pricier, flexible fare.

Several airlines in the U.S. have also hiked their baggage fees, including American Airlines and Alaska Airlines which upped their first checked bag charge from $30 to $35 US. Alaska Airlines said in an email it needed to adjust its fees to "navigate rising operating costs – including high fuel prices." American did not provide a reason.

Flair Airlines also recently raised some fees. Through an internet archive search, CBC News discovered that sometime after June 8, the airline increased the charge to book or change a flight over the phone from $15 to $25. The airline also upped its flight change and cancellation fees. For example, the price to change a flight a week or more before departure has jumped 155 per cent to $74 from $29. Flair also added a processing fee of 1.4 to 2.0 per cent when passengers pay by credit card. The airline did not respond to requests for comment.

Moore said the best way for passengers to ensure they're getting the best deal is to avoid paying for upgrades. So he recommends packing your own food and travelling only with a carry-on bag.

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(Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)

Team Manitoba skip Jennifer Jones becomes emotional after being defeated by Team Ontario in the final at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Calgary on Sunday. Jones stood in the middle of the home-end rings to acknowledge the standing ovation she received from the sold-out crowd at WinSport Event Centre. Six-time champion Jones intends to retire from women's team curling at the end of this season, although she will compete in mixed doubles with her husband. Read more about the tournament final here.

In brief

The federal government is introducing its long-awaited online harms legislation today. The complete text of the legislation isn't released yet, but its 46-word title indicates that it will involve changes to the Criminal Code, the Canadian Human Rights Act and laws that make reporting online child pornography mandatory. The bill will include a new regulator, separate from the CRTC, to hold tech giants accountable for harmful content. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last week the bill is designed to protect children from being subjected to "hatred, to violence, to being bullied and seeing and being affected by terrible things online." Last week, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Trudeau shouldn't be deciding what constitutes hate speech online and predicted the legislation would be an "attack on freedom of expression." Read more about the legislation here.

Olu Awoseyi thought he was in good hands when he saw that his lost phone had been picked up by an Air Canada employee — but then it disappeared. Awoseyi lost his phone at the Toronto Pearson Airport, but a security app snapped a photo of the employee who found it and had apparently tried to unlock it. Despite the airline saying it has ID'd the employee, Awoseyi still doesn't have his phone. Air Canada customer service said in an email that the phone had been returned to the Air Canada customer service desk in Pearson's international area. Despite this, the email went on to explain, the phone was nowhere to be found. "We have conducted our own thorough search this morning at the airport's Lost and Found, as well as at Air Canada's Lost and Found," it said, "but regrettably, we have not located your phone." Awoseyi has since filed a complaint with the Peel Regional Police, and hired a lawyer who, in a Jan. 8 letter, asked for compensation for the phone and legal fees. Read more about the missing phone, and the airport's success rate at reuniting lost items with customers, here.

A Toronto businessman faces new claims of wage theft and government orders to pay employees in the years since he and a few of his companies were charged for not complying with Ontario Ministry of Labour orders to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in wages in 2019. Anchuan Jiang and one of his companies pled guilty to some of those charges under the Employment Standards Act in 2021 and were fined a combined $100,000 in provincial court. Despite this conviction, a CBC Toronto investigation found Jiang still owes at least $290,000 in unpaid wages, has received 18 more orders to pay wages against one of his private schools totalling nearly $184,000, and is facing at least two more claims for unpaid wages since December 2023 from former employees of another private school he owns. In an email statement, Jiang said he and his companies are working toward paying most of the wages owed by the end of this year. Read about the wage theft claims here.

Could Joe Biden be replaced as the Democratic nominee? Not likely, experts say. Dogged by low approval ratings and concerns about his age, health and mental acuity, the U.S. president faces worries from some Democrats about his electability for a second term in office. People hoping that a latecomer could swoop in and challenge Biden in the primaries are out of luck, says Caitlin Jewitt, an associate political science professor at Virginia Tech. Filing deadlines to become a candidate have passed in more than 80 per cent of the states. "There is no mathematical way that another candidate can enter the primaries and secure a majority of delegates and become the nominee," she said. On the off-chance Biden steps aside, Democrats would need to search for a candidate who can beat Trump, who also unifies the moderate and progressive wings of the party and appeals to various demographic groups. "And that is going to be the Democratic Party basically fighting itself three months before the general election," Jewitt said. "There just is no obvious candidate." Read more about Biden here.

Now, to start your Monday, here's some bad news for every family that ever threw out their old hockey cards: A Saskatchewan family has sold a case filled with thousands of unopened 1979-1980 O-Pee-Chee brand hockey cards for about $5 million. The family found them in their attic. "I was texting with them last night," said Jason Simonds, the sport card specialist for the Dallas-based Heritage Auctions that sold the cards. "We stayed up until about one in the morning when the bidding ended. The family is ecstatic. This is life-changing money." The case is estimated to hold around 25 Wayne Gretzky cards from his rookie year, a prize that varies in value but has been sold in the past for millions. We may never know, though. Simonds said he imagines the buyer will keep the cards sealed and not open them. Read more about the hockey cards here.

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Today in history: Feb. 26

1870: An experimental air-driven subway, the Beach Pneumatic Transit, opens in New York City for public demonstrations. (The tunnel was only a block long, and the line had only one car.)

1942: The federal government uses the War Measures Act to order the removal of all Japanese-Canadians within 160 kilometres of the Pacific coast. About 22,000 people were stripped of all their non-portable possessions, interned and then deported to the B.C. Interior, Alberta and Manitoba.

1951: An amendment to the U.S. Constitution limited a president to two terms.

1979: A total solar eclipse casts a moving shadow 281 kilometres wide as it travels across the U.S. into Canada. The next total solar eclipse visible from Canada is April 8, 2024. Read about who will see this year's eclipse here.

(With files from CBC News, The Canadian Press, The Associated Press and Reuters)