Air travel and costs

[Rum_Pirate]

I just booked a return flight Caribbean - Uk - Caribbean on BA. Total fare US$1,050.00 Used my travel miles (or AVIOS as they are now known) . Had to put the taxes US$608.84 on my credit card. The airline gets US$441.16. That is 42% of the total, in other words the taxes amount to 58%, or 138% of what the Airline gets. On that basis I don't think that the Airlines overcharge. They still face paying tax on the profit from that reduced income (if they make a profit). It is the greedy grasping claws of the Governments that cause the high cost of air travel. [Rant]Close[/Rant]

[Dan McCosh]

I would think that the "taxes" are mainly additional fees and surcharges levied by the airlines, in an effort to misrepresent their actual charge for the fare.

[Willin']

Yeah but the airlines are making up for it with baggage fees. Some are even charging for carry ons.

I thought my last international flight was paid in full before I departed, but was hit with an additional baggage fee when I boarded the connecting flight in the states. The airlines get no sympathy from me.

[leikec]

I just booked a return flight Caribbean - Uk - Caribbean on BA. Total fare US$1,050.00 Used my travel miles (or AVIOS as they are now known) . Had to put the taxes US$608.84 on my credit card. The airline gets US$441.16. That is 42% of the total, in other words the taxes amount to 58%, or 138% of what the Airline gets. On that basis I don't think that the Airlines overcharge. They still face paying tax on the profit from that reduced income (if they make a profit). It is the greedy grasping claws of the Governments that cause the high cost of air travel. [Rant]Close[/Rant]

Just take the car--see how that goes....

Jeff C

[David W Pratt]

RP-
What you fail to grasp is that is just the government helping you do something you could not do on your own.

[Uncle Duke]

Your rant, in this case, should be specifically with the UK's "APD" tax. See this nice article, particularly the section "The Caribbean Question":
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/tr...ur-dreams.html
and this related one from the "IAPA" (International Airline Passengers Association):
http://www.iapa.com/index.cfm/travel...job-killer?C=1

Compare with U.S. taxes, in this nice study from M.I.T. (note that the "ETR" is percentage - right hand scale - while "TTF" and "BF" are in dollars - left hand scale):
http://web.mit.edu/TicketTax/

[Rum_Pirate]

Your rant, in this case, should be specifically with the UK's "APD" tax. See this nice article, particularly the section "The Caribbean Question":
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/tr...ur-dreams.html
and this related one from the "IAPA" (International Airline Passengers Association):
http://www.iapa.com/index.cfm/travel...job-killer?C=1

Compare with U.S. taxes, in this nice study from M.I.T. (note that the "ETR" is percentage - right hand scale - while "TTF" and "BF" are in dollars - left hand scale):
http://web.mit.edu/TicketTax/

i was aware of, and despise, the UK APD Tax, which penalizes the Caribbean compared to other more distant destinations.

Thanks for the links.

[BrianW]

We flew round trip from Seattle to Washington DC on Delta using miles, and I think we paid $20 each for 'taxes'.

[Kaa]

I would think that the "taxes" are mainly additional fees and surcharges levied by the airlines, in an effort to misrepresent their actual charge for the fare.

Actually no, a great deal of them are airport taxes. At some point (and probably today as well) there was a rather noticeable difference between the costs of flights to Madrid and same-origin flight to Lissabon. If you look at the price breakdown it was very clear that the difference was because of different airport taxes.

Kaa