U.S. presidents don't usually wade into the minutiae of airline seat selection, yet that's exactly what President Joe Biden did during his State of the Union Address earlier this year, spending nearly two minutes of the speech decrying"junk fees."
People are also reading… Now the question is what changes to these fees could be in store and what those changes will mean for travelers. Ancillary revenue — the industry term for revenue from fees and other add-ons — increased from 6% of total global airline revenue in 2013 to 15% in 2022, according to a report from IdeaWorksCompany. A similar trend played out in hotel resort and amenity fees, which began in vacation destinations such as Orlando and Las Vegas but has spread to destinations with few resorts.
Airbnb, which has caught flak for its cleaning fees, has introduced the option to see full prices in search results, including all taxes and fees. "Junk fees are universally hated. It's a unique bipartisan issue," says Wolfe."The people who are defending junk fees at hotels are the politicians who are paid off by the hotel lobby."