What is a validation fee?

Every airline ticket is “validated” on one carrier, regardless of how many carriers are included in the reservation. The validating carrier is the one who collects the money for the ticket and then portions it out to the other included carriers. Typically, the validating carrier is the first one on the itinerary, or the over-the-water carrier on an international ticket. Some months ago United, American, and Delta introduced a “validation fee”. This is a $100 fee added to the cost of the ticket if that airline is included in the itinerary, but the ticket is validated on another carrier. This is one of many reasons Travel-On has always compared the pricing if one ticket is issued for all carriers together or if each carrier is ticketed separately.