Glad you asked.

Peak travel day surcharges are a way for airlines to raise money in a tough economic environment and they’re kind of ingenious in their simplicity.

First you have to understand that over the last year airline ticket prices were in free fall to historic lows, and the airlines haven’t had much luck raising airfares en masse – we leisure travelers quit buying and business travelers aren’t picking up the slack. Sure, bag fees are perking along, and they may bring in close to $2 billion this year, but it’s just not enough.

Face it, the airlines are hurting.

So if they can’t boost the price of all tickets, the airlines will settle for boosting the price of a lot of tickets – with surcharges. Trust me, the airlines have been studying our habits for years – they know which days we want to fly, so they release fewer cheap seats and now are slapping on targeted departure day surcharges on these most popular days to fly (or “peak travel days”) and this allows them to rake in an extra $20 to $60 per roundtrip ticket.

Here’s something you may not know: peak travel day surcharges are filed in the same fashion as fuel surcharges which were popular in 2008 when oil hit $140+ per barrel – and both are rolled into the price of your ticket and are baked into the quoted price. These are not charged separately like bag fees – which are an “extra” item, like trip insurance – something you choose to pay. There’s no choice involved with a surcharge – if you fly on a “surcharge day” you will pay the price.

Why should you care? Because peak travel days belong on any list of “most painful days to fly”. Keep reading, I’ll explain…

“So What Exactly ARE These ‘Peak Travel Day’ Surcharges, and Why Should I Care?”