By Libby Hoppe

I travel quite a bit, and I’ve come to expect extra fees: $20 for a checked bag, $10 for extra legroom in an exit row or $5 for a set of headphones (but I get to keep them!). I’m not surprised at all by fees anymore, but that puts me in the minority. A survey released today by the Business Travel Coalition (BTC) and two other organizations indicates that two-thirds of travelers are surprised by fees when they travel ($8 for a veggie-and-ranch-dip tray? No thanks!).

What’s more is that many of these travelers are mad as hell about it, at least as noted by the BTC’s new website, MadAsHellAboutHiddenFees.com. The homepage of the site states, “Airline fees are out of hand and surprise us from the moment we make reservations.” It asks visitors to sign a petition, telling Washington they’re mad as hell. Want to vent? You can, by submitting a travel rant on the site. All the names and stories collected will be shared with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood on Sept. 23, or “Mad As Hell Day!”

I wouldn’t say I’m mad as hell about extra airline fees, but they are causing some problems for meeting industry professionals. Fees make it difficult for organizations or corporate travel managers to correctly budget for travel expenses when their employees head out of town, as noted by The New York Times. We reported earlier this year about how planners feel about what the survey revealed as the most annoying fee of all: carry-on baggage fees.

The fees are certainly helping to turn around airline finances. The nine largest airlines together made $1.86 billion in profits on $31.7 billion in revenue during the three-month quarter that ended June 30 this year. Delta Air Lines posted the biggest numbers, earning $467 million in profit, its biggest quarterly profit in a decade. Perhaps that’s what has travelers so irked. When an airline is posting profits that size, do they really need to charge $125 for a third checked bag?

The BTC isn’t asking for fees to be eliminated; that’s the new business model. It just wants fees to be more transparent to the traveler. Despite all the extra fees, I’m not mad as hell, and that’s probably because I don’t find flight prices to be too terribly high. The emergence of low-cost carriers such as AirTran and Southwest has helped keep prices down, forcing larger airlines to offer competitive rates. Case in point: I flew to Kansas City, Mo., from Atlanta this past weekend to visit family for the long weekend. I left Thursday night and returned Monday evening. My total flight price when I booked online came to $194.40. When I returned to Atlanta, the total amount I spent on the flight was $194.40. I carried on my luggage (a good-size suitcase and weekender handbag), accepted my window seat in the 22nd row (not too far back), and purchased a soda and a bag of trail mix in the terminal before boarding (which cost $3). And the best part? I made it from Kansas City to Atlanta in less than two hours. My time is valuable, so for me, that’s worth every penny.