The committee report said that airlines increasingly rely on ancillary fees to make billions, raising questions about cost transparency and consumer impact.
As millions of Americans prepare for record-setting air travel this holiday season, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) released a report on Nov. 26 detailing the growing reliance of major airlines on ancillary fees.
These charges, sometimes referred to as “junk fees,” have become a vital revenue stream for the airlines while travelers “confront more and increasingly complex fees and fewer options for avoiding them,” according to the report.
The report, led by the chairman of the subcommittee, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), examines practices by American Airlines, Delta Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Spirit Airlines, and United Airlines.
It highlights the use of dynamic pricing, incentive programs, and other strategies the committee said are used to generate revenue from services that were previously included in ticket prices.
“Our investigation has exposed new details about airlines exploiting passengers with sky high junk fees,” Blumenthal said in a statement accompanying the report. “As we head into the Thanksgiving weekend, we regret that travelers will be charged millions of dollars in fees that have no basis in cost to the airlines but simply fatten their bottom lines.”
Among the findings, the report revealed that Spirit and Frontier paid $26 million to gate agents and personnel between 2022 and 2023 for enforcing baggage policies.
These incentives were designed to identify passengers who exceed baggage allowances, often leading to additional fees, the report stated. Frontier agents, for example, can earn up to $10 per bag flagged for a fee at the gate.
The report also explored how airlines use algorithms to adjust ancillary fees based on customer data. This approach allows fees for services like seat selection to vary significantly, even on the same flight.
Between 2018 and 2023, the five airlines generated $12.4 billion in seat fee revenue, with some charges reaching as high as $899 for premium seats.
By Chase Smith
