Taxes on Frequent Flyer Tickets

[3kids4me]

I just booked two international frequent flyer tickets and was amazed that the taxes were over $200 for each ticket!! Isn't that crazy?

Sharon

 

[Blondie]

Remember that come tax time.

 

[scotlass]

Which airline?

 

[Dave M]

Remember that come tax time.

??? Those taxes are not deductible on a U.S. tax return.

 

[Dave M]

Which airline?

All airlines. Many governments add a variety of taxes to plane tickets.

Among others governments, you can thank the U.K. government for some very high taxes. I'm guessing it's to the U.K. that Sharon is flying. Here's an article discussing the impact (it loads slowly).

 

[Carolinian]

Flying out of the UK on a long haul flight brings a huge tax. This tax was imposed by Gordon Brown while he was still Chancellor of the Exchequer not long before he became Prime Minister. He justified it as a tax to discourage people from flying in order to ''save the planet''. The Netherlands has a massive new tax justified for similar reasons that will go into effect on July 1, imposed by their center-left government. They are the only European countries to have this tax.

While my flights to the UK are now short haul, with a much lower tax, if I were going to the UK from the US, I would fly open jaws with the return flight from Ireland or even Germany or France, and use a cheap LCC flight as a bridge to the return flight. This way, one only pays the much lower short haul UK tax. If I were flying to the Netherlands, I would fly back from Brussels, Belgium and bridge those two with a train.

There is something else you have to watch out for on European airlines. They often include a ''fuel surcharge'' on the tax line and charge you that on an award ticket like it was a tax, which is a completely dishonest practice. The only US airline I know that plays this deceiptful game is Delta, and so far only if you are originating in Europe. That started in January, and they say they intend to take it systemwide at some point. I was able to find summer award tickets a few weeks ago for my son across the pond originating in Europe on both Northwest and Delta. NW wanted $86 in taxes and fees, which was all legitimately taxes, while DL wanted $335 in taxes and fees, the majority of which was a huge ''fuel surcharge''.

 

[3kids4me]

FWIW...this was on American.

 

[Carolinian]

Flying from the UK, it does not matter what airline you are on. If you are flying longhaul, Gordon Brown's huge ''save the planet'' tax is going to nail you. And if you are flying from the Netherlands after July 1, you will have the same problem.

You ought to check a ticket flying open jaws into London and out of Dublin, then take a RyanAir hop one way between the two.

 

[Dori]

Our taxes flying out of Toronto, even to Florida, are usually in the $200 range. For that reason (plus the fact that we love Southwest ), we drive to Buffalo and do a hotel park-and-fly.

Dori

 

[BevL]

Our taxes flying out of Toronto, even to Florida, are usually in the $200 range. For that reason (plus the fact that we love Southwest ), we drive to Buffalo and do a hotel park-and-fly.

Dori

And why we fly from Seattle, unless we're flying FF. OUr taxes last month on tickets to Hawaii weren't too bad.

 

[Carolinian]

Our taxes flying out of Toronto, even to Florida, are usually in the $200 range. For that reason (plus the fact that we love Southwest ), we drive to Buffalo and do a hotel park-and-fly.

Dori

I wonder if they are dishonestly sneaking a ''fuel surcharge'' (designated YQ, I beleive) into your ''taxes'' calculation. Fuel is an integral and necessary part of the basic service being sold, and an honest airlines simply includes it as part of the fare. A dishonest airline tries to insert it as a seperate charge on the tax line so that they can gouge passengers on award tickets with it, and so that they can advertise deceptive fares.

 

[MikeM132]

I just booked two international frequent flyer tickets and was amazed that the taxes were over $200 for each ticket!! Isn't that crazy?

Sharon

Ironically, I just paid $57 each for 2 FF tickets on AA to Aruba. I asked and they said this in only on international flights. New to me; but then this is my first FF flight out of the US.
Speaking of taxes---we found a "glitich" on the AA website that caused us to miss our return flight reservation. We leave a day later, requiring a hotel for one night. We are going to pay over $70 tax for ONE NIGHT in Aruba (unless we can get back on the flight we wanted later--we have 10 months). I think I'm staying domestic from now on.

 

[Carolinian]

Some Caribbean islands do have a departure tax of $20-25, which is sometimes collected with the other ticket taxes and sometimes paid at the airport. Fortunately, they haven't started to try to ''save the planet'' like the UK and Netherlands. France also has an annoying, but much smaller, ticket tax of around $20 to fund third world social programs.

 

[Blondie]

Whoops- I didn't see the "international" part of that post. I see the word TAXES and my eyes glaze over.

 

[Elli]

And why we fly from Seattle, unless we're flying FF. OUr taxes last month on tickets to Hawaii weren't too bad.

Bev, when you fly from Seattle, do you stay overnight in Seattle? If you do, which hotel do you usually stay in? We need 1 night in the fall on our return from the Big Island. Thanks.

Elli