Help Our Volunteers By Removing Airline Fees

There are quite a few companies out there offering low-cost airfare.  Here are a few we recommend to people who plan to volunteer or teach abroad:

Smarter Travel

Student Universe

The Airfare Guru

STA Travel

Fly For Good

But my point in this post is that anyone out there who provides airfare for students, teachers, and volunteers...thank you.  And while you're finding lower fares, where you could also be of great help is to negotiate reduced airline fees or negotiate that the airlines get rid of them totally for teachers, students and volunteers.

To illustrate my point, take a look at this chart I downloaded from Smarter Travel.  It is very current...updated on April 6.  It lists 14 airlines and 12 different fees the airline charge passengers.  Just click on the link above and take a look at the chart.

I just returned from meetings in and around London and I flew on United.  Because I fly constantly, I don't have to pay all these fees.  But had I been going over to volunteer abroad or teach abroad, here is what I might have had to pay in fees on United, in addition to my airfare and taxes:

$25 for my bag.

$45 for my 2nd bag (Int'l charge)

$25 booking fee

$9 for extra leg room on the International flight

$9 for a meal plus $6 if I want wine or beer

And that totals up to $119.

On Student Universe, I can fly over June 1 from New York to London and return on July 31 for $280 and then add $389 in taxes and security fees and then add my $119 in airline fees (above).  The airline fees are almost 50% of the airfare and the taxes and security fees are even more than my airfare.

So I'm asking all of you out there who brag about how low your airfares are (and they really aren't all that low if you don't fit a very small demographic like student or maybe a teacher), you could help our volunteers by asking the airlines to get rid of those extra fees. We will give the airlines proof that our volunteers are who they say they are and they are going abroad to volunteer their time.  This is how you can be helpful to everyone.  I understand you can't get rid of security fees and taxes, but the rest of those fees?  You can negotiate that for us.

So if I'm a senior citizen (and I almost qualify) and I can't access the student airfare, I'm going to have to pay full freight to buy my ticket through you.  But if I go ahead and buy my airfare from you anyway and prove I'm going to volunteer, why can't you help me by getting the airlines to get rid of all those extra fees?  That helps everyone and it would certainly sell a lot more tickets on your site.

Please? Anyone else have ways to help?