Alaska Airlines: $10 surcharge awaits those who like to talk to human beings

Alaska just announced that they will follow in the footsteps of other airlines by imposing a $10 service fee on airline tickets purchased at ticket counters or via 1-800-AlaskaAir. The price increase was instituted by Alaska to compete with bargain and bankrupt airlines that no longer embed the cost of human ticket sellers in their prices.

According to Alaska, other airlines that have instituted similar service fees have not seen a decrease in call-center volumes - which should be of some comfort to the human beings working on the other end of the 1-800 number.

The fee will go into effect on January 18, 2006.