Fees

I hate paying extra rental car fees.  Rental car companies are undoubtedly even worse than the airlines when it comes to extra fees.  For family travelers, you can easily be hit with fees for car seat rental, additional drivers, dropping at a different location, navigation systems, and even electronic toll passes.  And we haven’t even …

  As much as I complain about most of the major airlines, it’s time for a reality check. It could be worse. I could be flying an ultra-discount carrier. When infrequent travelers hear this moniker, their mind normally jumps to Southwest. But Southwest isn’t in this category. It is now considered a “discount” or “low …

If you travel even only occasionally these days, you are probably already aware that most airlines now charge fees for checked bags. Perhaps you’ve already heard about the increase in airline change fees the past few months. Both of these are fees that can really disproportionately affect families, since families have so many more people …

Airlines have been making a lot of moves in the past few weeks when it comes to change fees.  And the news is not good.  As you can probably guess, change fees are going up.  Change fees are a real money-maker for the airlines these days, which conversely means you can be hit very hard as …

If you fly a lot, then you are probably getting used to being nickeled and dimed.  Airlines now charge for lots of things – checked baggage, advance seat assignments, extra legroom, phone reservation fees, etc. But a lot of us don’t think about the extras that come with a hotel stay.  The rate that you …

Updated June 30, 2015! Back when I was childless and carefree, I prided myself in being able to pack light.  I regularly carried on a single roll-aboard in my travels so I could be on my way out of an airport quickly, bypassing the bag carousel.  Once our first little one came along, I realized …