Northwest plans to start charging extra booking fees

A travel industry spokesperson says Iowans who fly will have to pay more money and waste more time under new fees going into effect today (Friday). Northwest Airlines is now charging a five-dollar fee to book a flight over the phone and ten-dollars at airports. Next week, travel agents will be docked seven-50 when booking Northwest flights. Triple-A-Iowa spokeswoman Dawn Duffy says it’s a ridiculous move. Duffy says “These fees are worse than an airfare increase. Not only do they result in higher fares but they penalize travelers and travel agents who are trying to use customer-friendly booking methods in order to get the best deals out there, to comparison shop.” She says Northwest is trying to push travelers into using the airline’s individual website instead of a universal site where people could compare prices. Duffy says “They’re trying to eliminate competition. We understand that Northwest needs to improve its bottom line — this is a hyper-sensitive, hyper-competitive airline industry, however, it does not endear them to the airline travelers nor to travel agents. We do have other options.” She says some frequent fliers will simply quit flying Northwest if the flights are more expensive.A news release on the Northwest Airlines website, nwa.com, says “Once fully implemented, the changes are expected to lower Northwest’s annual domestic distribution costs by approximately 70-million dollars.”