What an Idea?

[mcmbenjamin]

So I recent paid my hard earned personal cash for a ticket: not clients money, not miles. I was happy with the fare but was surprised to see the following brake down of taxes of the ticket and in such detail.

Comments? Does average passenger care what portion of the money paid goes where?

(The ticket includes a EWR-CPH segment...I do not see a CPH arrival tax or anything.....

quote:[FARE INFORMATION
Fare Breakdown
Airfare: 316.00 USD
U.S. Customs User Fee: 5.50
U.S. Immigration User Fee: 7.00
U.S. APHIS User Fee: 5.00
U.S. Federal Transportation Tax: 32.20
U.S. Security Service Fee: 5.00
U.K. Air Passenger Duty: 73.50
U.K. Passenger Service Charge: 34.60
Fuel Surcharge: 280.00
U.S. Passenger Facility Charge: 9.00
Per Person Total: 767.80
USD
eTicket Total: 767.80
USD

The airfare you paid on this itinerary totals: 316.00 USD
The taxes you paid on this itinerary total: 451.80 USD
Fare Rules: Additional charges may apply for changes in addition to any fare rules listed.
NONREF/0VALUAFTDPT/CHGFEE
Cancel reservations before the scheduled departure time or TICKET HAS NO VALUE.

Not too bothered, though I will say I don't like fuel surcharges being listed as taxes - and it annoys me to have to pay them on mileage tickets with VS - something I don't have to do with other airlines.

Airlines are going to work hard at figuring out what fare their customers are going to be happy with at any given time, and that's what they will charge. It's clearly not an exact science, but in the end if the UK gvmt killed APD, I seriously doubt you'd end up paying 73 dollars less if the airline feels it can get away with collecting that amount itself ... after all overall air fares adjusted for inflation were way higher thirty years ago, when we paid little taxes.

I just want to make sure I know what is going to be charged to my CC as soon as possible in the booking process, where the money goes is not a direct concern. I suppose excessive taxation ends up eating into the airlines' ability to turn a profit, thus leading to a potential 'killing the goose that's laying the egg' scenario, but that's not something I'd be concerned about on a ticket-by-ticket basis.

Aside from any legal requirements to detail charges, I've always thought of this as the airlines saying 'look, it's not our fault fares are at the level the are, look what we'd charge if we could'.

I agree that the fuel surcharge SHOULD NOT be included in the 'taxes' section. It is not a tax imposed on the fare by the various Governments but part of the cost of the fare.

Even some of the 'taxes' are not taxes but the fees charged by the airport operators (UK and US) so that the airport and its facilities are paid for.

[HighFlyer]

Boy that is a depressing reading to see all those 'extras'. I don't think very many people have any idea about the breakdown of the taxes though.

Thanks,
Sarah

quote:Originally posted by pjh
Aside from any legal requirements to detail charges, I've always thought of this as the airlines saying 'look, it's not our fault fares are at the level the are, look what we'd charge if we could'.



Although despite all these new taxes economy fares are mostly unchanged. If all the governments/airport decided tomorrow to remove the taxes and security charges I don't think we'd see any fall in the price.

The move to breaking down the price was a pre-empt to axing travel agents commission.

When I was a travel agent, we'd get 9% on international, and 7.5% on domestic flights. So, on a fare of 1000, you'd get commission on the lot. On US tickets there were always a lot of taxes, and commission wasn't calculated on this. And slowly but surely, the other charges begin to get listed with the taxes, avoiding the need to pay commission on that part.

And along came easyJet and commission became a luxury... and perhaps a memory (not sure how it works now)...