Will mergers mean higher fares and more fees?

There's a 95 percent chance Senior Editor Christine Sarkis is thinking about travel right now. Follow her on Instagram @postcartography and Twitter @ChristineSarkis.

Christine Sarkis is an SATW-award-winning journalist and executive editor at SmarterTravel. Her stories have also appeared on USA Today, Conde Nast Traveler, Huffington Post, and Business Insider. Her advice has been featured in dozens of print and online publications including The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, and People magazine. She has also shared travel tips on television and radio shows including Good Morning America, Marketplace, and Here & Now. Her work has been published in the anthologies Spain from a Backpack and The Best Women's Travel Writing 2008. She is currently working on a travel memoir.

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Worried that airline mergers are going to send airfare prices skyrocketing? You might want to read this MSNBC.com article from George Hobica.

He makes the case that mergers might not cause sharp airfare increases, though he also admits mergers would significantly reduce the number of unadvertised hub-airport fare wars that currently benefit consumers.

It’s not all optimistic speculation, since he goes on to say that airline fees might increase in the event of mergers. For example, if United and Continental merge, each airline will bring their current fees to the equation.

So the new airline would probably ditch United’s policy of allowing passengers to collect a refund if a fare price drops after purchase, choosing instead to adopt Continental’s $100 ticket change fee. Pity they likely wouldn’t do it the other way.

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