FareCompare CEO and all around travel guru, Rick Seaney, is joining ABCNews.com as a weekly columnist. In upcoming weeks, Rick will be sharing insider tips on how to find cheap flights, first class travel deals, affects that changes in the airline industry will have on average air travelers, and much more.

Check out Rick’s first ABCNews.com column, “Do Airline Mergers Mean Higher Prices?” And please, leave some comments on the ABC site.

This afternoon, United Airlines standardized a $50 per Round-Trip fuel surcharge on the majority of its domestic route system, so be prepared to shell out some extra money for those United tickets.

UPDATE: DELTA HAS MATCHED THE INCREASE

In the three years that FareCompare has been tracking airfares, we have not seen an increase on this scale.

When we asked why United made the decision to put the unprecedented increase into effect at this time, Robin Urbanski, a spokesperson for United, said, “Increases in the cost of fuel continue to be unprecedented.”

Over the weekend,more airlines will have a chance to match this increase, which follows a previous increase that United initiated on January 3rd.

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