As part of a budget deal, Congress agreed to raise TSA fees starting next month. The cost will be raised to a flat $5.60 one-way, compared to the previous cost of $2.50 for a nonstop flight, or $5 for a flight with a connection. Basically the “9/11 Security Fee” is currently $2.50 per segment, so that means for someone taking a nonstop flight, the TSA fees are more than doubling.
It does make me chuckle a bit, because I wish the new policy had been in place years ago. Back then airlines had very lenient routing rules, so you could often fly five segments in each direction on a domestic itinerary. You’d pay $2.50 per segment in fees, so would have actually come out ahead under the new “pricing” scheme. Nowadays it’s tough to “pad” segments like that.
Of course this change sucks for the vast majority of people. But what I find even more interesting is that the TSA is now proposing to change the definition of a roundtrip so that they’re penalizing passengers with long connections.
Via USA Today:
But the agency proposes to change the definition of a round trip, according to details set to be published Friday in the Federal Register. Under the proposal, the TSA plans to charge a separate $5.60 fee for each leg of a flight in which a connection between domestic flights is more than four hours, or between domestic flights in Alaska or Hawaii and international destinations with layovers of more than 12 hours.
Perhaps not the most significant thing ever as most airlines won’t let you have a domestic connection of over four hours without the fare “breaking,” though still quite interesting. So if you booked a roundtrip ticket with two segments in each direction and long layovers, you’d be paying $22.40 in TSA fees alone, which seems crazy.
I mean, for $2.50 I find the quality of the “massages” to be acceptable, but if they’re more than doubling the prices I expect at least double the quality.
(Tip of the hat to Drew)
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