People like to fly during the holidays – and the airlines want to exploit that

The airfare specialists over at Farecompare.com came across something rather unsettling a couple of days ago. When looking at the fares airlines loaded into the various booking systems, they noticed that American Airlines started adding a $10 fee applied to all flights on the Sunday after Thanksgiving (Nov. 29) and Jan. 2 and 3.

Shortly after that, United Airlines pulled the same stunt, followed by Delta Airlines. Essentially, this “Miscellaneous surcharge” is a way for the airlines to make a huge amount of money on the days people need them the most.

It may not be as pathetic as the new British Airways seat selection fee we wrote about, but it comes pretty damn close.

These holiday tickets are historically the most expensive of the season, but making all that extra cash isn’t enough for the airlines. The only way to stay away from this bogus surcharge is to avoid the three days mentioned above, or to pick an airline that has not (yet) chosen to climb on board the silly surcharge bandwagon.