Pay Up For That Pushcart

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Visitors arriving in the United States via JFK and other New York City-area airports quickly find that, in the land of the free, the luggage trolleys aren't. The cash-strapped New York-New Jersey Port Authority recently imposed a $2 fee per cart. (Helpfully, the trolley dispensing machines take credit and debit cards.) JFK joins just a handful of international airports that have apparently decided that the money made by charging weary travelers for trolleys is worth the goodwill lost.

Vienna 's Schwechat Airport requires a 31 or 32 deposit for trolleys. But, as in many supermarkets, the fee is refunded when the pushcart is replaced in the trolley park. If you're flying to Germany, keep some euro coins handy: airports in

Düsseldorf and Munich charge 31 but, unlike Hannover, Hamburg and Leipzig, the fee isn't refunded. Continental Europe's largest airport, Frankfurt, still provides trolleys for free. At Dublin International Airport, the refundable fee can be paid with a 31 or £1 coin. Lisbon 's Portela Airport charges €1. At Toronto's Pearson Airport, trolleys cost a bargain-rate $1 Canadian (about U.S. 80¢). Until recently, the full $1 was refunded when the trolley was returned, but the refund is now just 25¢.