Round-trip fares up 40 dollars

United Airlines, American Airlines and US Airways hiked up their fuel surcharges from $20 to a whopping $40 for domestic round-trip tickets over the weekend.

Two previous industry attempts to raise fuel surcharges failed, thus airlines made a more selective decision to raise fees on 66 percent of their networks. The slightly aggressive approach could be an attempt to make airfare increases more sticky, say experts. The earlier attempts from United and American Airlines failed as consumers cringed at the higher fees. With the U.S. economy at a stand still, airlines have really struggled to pass on higher fuel costs to passengers.

Over the last few days, US Airways, American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines all announced fourth-quarter losses due to skyrocketing fuel costs.