Posted on August 19, 2010 by Fiona Hilliard

While European car hire customers roll their eyes at Ryanair’s latest attempts to penny pinch, over the pond US passengers have their work cut out with American Airlines.

The Texas-based airline yesterday announced that it will be charging between $19 (€15) and $39 (€31) for “Express Seats” the seating in the first few rows of the plane with bulkhead seats.

American Airlines said the extra charge covers getting on the plane in the first “general boarding” group of passengers.  The seats that cost extra are situated in the first two or three rows of the coach cabin, depending on the size of the plane.

For those interested, the seats can be purchased at kiosks between 24 hours and 50 minutes before flights for travel within the US.

However frequent fliers will still be allocated those seats for no extra charge.

American Airlines currently also charges for checked bags, priority boarding, booking on the phone or in person “sleep sets”, unaccompanied minors and pets.

This year airlines across the US collected around $1.9 billion from fees in their first quarter.  American Airline’s share of that was $261.1 million.

Could these charges spell the end for cheap flights for passengers everywhere? Only time will tell…

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