By Sam Kemmis | NerdWallet

Getting upset at junk fees is like getting upset at the flu.

Sure, I’m annoyed both when I get sick and when I have to pay $20 for my seat of choice, but it’s pointless to get mad at the viruses or airlines responsible. They’re just doing their jobs: One maximizing self-replication, and the other, profit.

Since budget airlines rose to prominence over a decade ago, airlines have been exploiting a quirk in human purchasing psychology: We’re attracted to low initial prices and tend to overlook high total costs when fees are “dripped” out slowly.

Indeed, it’s been shown that consumers systematically make suboptimal decisions when prices are dripped throughout the checkout process rather than disclosed up front, according to a 2020 study in Harvard Business School’s journal Marketing Science.

Just as a virus will exploit a weakness in the human immune system to reproduce itself, airlines have quickly realized that offering the lowest base fare possible and the highest fees is a great way to increase profit.

A 2023 report from IdeaWorksCompany, an airline industry reporting firm, and CarTrawler, a travel software provider, notes that ancillary revenue (i.e., fees) as a percentage of total revenue more than doubled from 6.7% in 2014 to 14.7% in 2023.

Junk fees exist because they work, and they won’t go away until they stop working.

Recent federal intervention

In April, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) rolled out new consumer protections for air passengers, including rules aimed at stymying junk fees.

Over the next two years, airlines and travel booking platforms must start displaying the cost of baggage and cancellation fees “clearly, conspicuously and accurately.” They must also do away with some funny business, like making seat selection fees appear mandatory when they aren’t — one of my biggest pet peeves.

It’s a step in the right direction and hopefully will save passengers the time and money they would have spent getting flummoxed by these fees. Yet just as viruses mutate, it’s possible that airlines will find workarounds and new fees faster than federal regulators can quash them.

Indeed, airlines are already suing the DOT over its new fee transparency rules, calling them “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion and otherwise contrary to law,” according to a report from Reuters. So who knows if they’ll ever go into effect.

We need better search tools

In preparation for its new regulations, the DOT held a public hearing to get feedback from affected groups, including the travel booking platforms, earlier this month. One name that jumps out in the summary of these hearings — some 38 times by my count — is “Google.”

Some excerpts from the report:

“Google expressed its view that the Department did not explain how consumers were harmed by not having fee disclosures until the ticket purchase stage of the booking process and that consumers are aware of fees.”
“Some … metasearch entities such as Google stated that the existing marketplace provided transparency and that the rule would diminish consumer choice and competition.”

Basically, Google tried to convince the DOT that the current model, in which search engines like Google Flights display base prices without junk fees, is good enough.

Huh?

Sure, airlines have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, since it’s making them boatloads of money. But why does Google care? Besides the technical hassle of updating its software to reflect the DOT’s regulations, Google Flights should applaud anything that helps consumers find the lowest-cost airfare.

If Google isn’t going to do it (and it sounds like they won’t), a travel search tool needs to step up and help travelers make sense of add-on fees.

The DOT’s rules are like nutritional information on food: They’re a good first step to helping consumers make better choices. Now, we need the travel shopping equivalent of Whole Foods to actually offer the product that price-conscious travelers are craving.

It’s not complicated. We just want to know how much a flight or hotel room will actually cost. If services like Google won’t figure it out, somebody else (hopefully) will.

Herd junk fee immunity

Halting the junk fee pandemic could also require another change: fed-up consumers.

Although airlines have been racing to the bottom in terms of adding fees, they still differ significantly. According to our recent analysis at NerdWallet, the airlines with the lowest fees are:

Southwest Airlines.
Alaska Airlines.
Hawaiian Airlines.

And the airlines with the highest fees are:

Frontier Airlines.
Spirit Airlines.
United Airlines.

When searching for flights, I usually omit the big offenders altogether, either by filtering them in search results or ignoring their fares.

Do they sometimes offer the best flights at the best prices? Probably. But it’s not worth my time and effort to go through their laborious drip-filled checkout processes to figure out how much I’ll actually pay.

This is a kind of “acquired immunity” to the junk fee virus. I’ve been exposed to these fees often enough (it’s basically my job) that I can either avoid or ignore them.

However, many travelers aren’t on the front lines of junk fee exposure and search for flights only once or twice a year.

It could take years before we reach herd immunity, where the spread of the problem is blocked because enough people are immune. Yet I’m confident that, with a little help from the federal government and innovation from the private sector, we’ll turn the junk fee pandemic into a not-so-fond memory.

Sam Kemmis writes for NerdWallet. Email: skemmis@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @samsambutdif.

The article Travel Junk Fees Are a Virus With No Easy Fix originally appeared on NerdWallet.

Katie Walsh | Tribune News Service

The Diane Keaton Industrial Complex is a fascinating and understudied media mini-phenomenon. Once or twice a year for the past six or so years, she anchors an ensemble comedy about the perils and pleasures of getting older, surrounded by a fabulous, Oscar-worthy cast, in which she essentially plays “Diane Keaton,” or a cartoonishly frazzled, overdressed caricature of “Diane Keaton.” On the higher end, there’s “Book Club” (2018) and “Book Club: The Next Chapter” (2023), and then you have “Poms” (2019) about a group of friends who start a cheerleading squad at a retirement home, and “Mack & Rita” (2022), about a 30-year-old who magically wakes up as her 70-year-old self, and the 2024 inverse of that, “Arthur’s Whisky,” and on and on.

Her performances in these films are harried repeats of her charming turn in Nancy Meyers’ “Something’s Gotta Give” (2003), but rather than being ensconced in a fabulous Hamptons manse, she’s usually being thrust into increasingly zany circumstances (cheerleading, a ropes course, beach yoga) to diminishing returns. It’s wonderful that she’s working and seems to be having fun, but the subgenre is such a strange curio that one has to take stock at a certain point. It’s like Keaton has assembled her own Adam Sandler-style movie camp, inviting her award-winning friends for an untaxing jaunt while giving the opportunity to a young female filmmaker to direct a feature film. It’s a fun idea, but it’s a shame about the cinematic results.

The latest of these ventures is “Summer Camp,” in which Kathy Bates, Alfre Woodard, Dennis Haysbert, Eugene Levy and Beverly D’Angelo have received their summons to report for duty, with Castille Landon as writer/director. Keaton plays workaholic widow Nora who is pressured into her 50-year camp reunion by her friend, celebrity self-help guru Ginny Moon (Bates), alongside their third pal, emergency room nurse Mary (Woodard).

You can probably guess that over the course of the weekend, these longtime camp friends are going to thrill at being back together and delight in their old crushes (Levy, wearing a stupefyingly sculpted hairpiece) before old resentments come rushing out. They’ll all do a bit of self-reflection and have an epiphany about their current stasis, and then proceed to the teary catharsis and a renewed approach to life.

There are sparks of insight that do come floating to the top, before they’re undercut by some prank or pratfall, or, regretfully, a food fight (followed almost immediately by a pillow fight). Landon’s script touches on some topics and themes that could be interesting to explore in a different genre, like Ginny Moon’s manipulations of her friends through her self-help slogans (black comedy), or Mary’s realization she’s trapped in a toxic marriage to an incompetent husband (domestic drama). In fact, only Woodard delivers an actual performance, not that it’s allowed to fully shine. Every time the film seems on the precipice of insight, Josh Peck scares a horse or Betsy Sodaro unleashes an unhinged ad-lib, and it’s back to wacky.

Landon’s aesthetic is bright, flat and colorful, marked by predictable rhythms and an overuse of popular pop songs intermingled with a standard-issue “whimsical comedy” score by Tom Howe. The most interesting design elements of these kinds of films are usually the wigs (Bates sports an orange bob here), as well as Keaton’s costumes. In “Summer Camp,” she wears her signature bowler hats and glasses, and performs archery in a three-piece suit. In one of the film’s only legitimately (and unintentionally) funny jokes, Ginny Moon gives Nora a makeover and her new look is a full skirt paired with a crisp white Oxford and a giant belt, one of Keaton’s most iconic outfits going back to “Because I Said So” (2007), something real Keaton-heads would clock right away.

While there are pops of piquancy in Landon’s script, her direction and the performances (with the exception of Woodard) fail to inspire much more than a shrug. “Summer Camp” is only mildly interesting as another entry in the Keaton-verse.

———

‘SUMMER CAMP’

1.5 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: PG-13 (for sexual material, strong language and some underage smoking)

Running time: 1:35

How to watch: In theaters May 31

———

©2024 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

By BECKY BOHRER (Associated Press)

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A climber from Malaysia who was stranded for three days near the top of North America’s tallest mountain following a summit push was rescued Friday, but his partner was dead, officials said. A third member of their team had been rescued this week after descending lower on Denali in Alaska.

After days of cloudy, windy conditions, personnel from Denali National Park and Preserve on Friday morning were able to rescue the surviving climber at 19,600 feet (5,974 meters), where he and his partner had been holed up in a snow cave since late Tuesday, according to the park.

Late Thursday, the park’s high-altitude helicopter pilot was able to drop a bag with survival gear near the snow cave and saw a climber waving at him, but strong winds prevented a rescue at that time, the park said.

It was not clear to rescuers whether one or both of the climbers was alive until Friday morning’s rescue, park spokesperson Paul Ollig said by email. He noted in part limited communications with the climbers after rangers first received an SOS from the three-member team at 1 a.m. Tuesday indicating they were hypothermic and unable to descend after reaching Denali’s 20,310-foot (6,190-meter) summit.

Officials are still gathering information about what happened, and the language barrier has been challenging, Ollig said. The climbers are from Malaysia.

“All we know right now is that the deceased climber died approximately two days ago,” Ollig said by email.

The climber rescued Friday was medevaced to an Anchorage hospital for additional care and “was in surprisingly strong condition, walking on his own even, considering what he endured,” Ollig said, adding that additional information about him and the other survivor would not be released by the park.

Rangers planned to recover the body of the climber who died later.

The climbers were part of a three-person team of men who all listed in their climbing histories experience on “multiple high elevation international peaks,” Ollig has said. Two had previous experience on Denali, he said.

The third climber, previously identified as a 48-year-old, was rescued Tuesday night after descending to a 17,200-foot (5,243-meter) camp. He was described by the park as having severe frostbite and hypothermia.

Cheese-spiked munchies are such a luscious treat. These Gruyere cheese crackers fall into that irresistible category. Gruyere, a hard Swiss cheese with alluring nuttiness, teams up with whole-grain mustard and caraway seeds to give these cracker coins a French flair. Using the food processor helps to quickly turn out dough that yields tenderness.

Out of the processor, the dough is rolled into logs and chilled until firm; then the logs are thinly sliced crosswise. They bake up crisp and lightly golden.

I like to serve them with sliced fruit, such as apples or stone fruit.  They are also delicious served with baked Brie.

Gruyere, Mustard, and Caraway Cheese Coins

Yield: 10 to 12 servings, about 80 coins

INGREDIENTS

8 ounces Gruyere, shredded (2 cups)

1 1/2 cups (7 1/2 ounces) all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 teaspoon caraway seeds

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon paprika

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled, cut into 8 pieces

1/4 cup whole-grain mustard

DIRECTIONS

1. Process Gruyere, flour, cornstarch, caraway, salt, cayenne, and paprika in food processor until combined, about 30 seconds. Scatter chilled butter pieces, over top and process until mixture resembles wet sand, about 20 seconds. Add mustard and process until dough forms a ball, about 10 seconds. Transfer dough to counter and divide in half. Roll each half into a 10-inch log, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until firm, a least 1 hour.

2. Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Unwrap logs and slice into 1/4-inch-thick coins, giving dough a quarter turn after each slice to keep log round. Place coins on prepared sheets, spaced 1/2 inch apart.

3. Bake until light golden around edges, 22 to 28 minutes, switching and rotating sheets halfway through baking. Let coins cool completely on sheets before serving.

Source: “America’s Test Kitchen’s Modern Bistro” (America’s Test Kitchen)

Award-winning food writer Cathy Thomas has written three cookbooks, including “50 Best Plants on the Planet.” Follow her at @CathyThomas Cooks.com.

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