What does your flight really cost?

Have you ever looked carefully at the cost of an airline ticket to see exactly what you're paying for? Doing so can be a startling.

I'm making plans for a quick return to Chicago to attend the Ceremony of Sealing and Binding the Dossier of the Cause for the Beatification and Canonization of the Servant of God Father Augustus Tolton on Monday, September 29th.

The cost of the flight I am looking at - for which I intend to use airline miles - breaks down as follows:

Cost of Flight: $353.00
Taxes & Fees: $442.80

That's right: the cost of the flight is less than the combined taxes and fees.

Earlier this summer the Wall Street Journal reported that "there are as many as 11 different taxes and government fees on airline tickets, depending on the itinerary." Precisely what these different taxes and fees are, I do not know.

It seems to me that this needs to change.