Using Virgin air miles and the tax element of the fare

After years of saving air miles I eventually decided to have a go at using them.
I was pleasantly surprised that there was availability in PE to use my airmiles on flights to Newark over Easter and The Wedding.
Then the shock - I had realised that I would have to pay cash for the tax etc elements - but was taken aback that this totaled £320 per passenger. The full PE fare was £650.
So my options were - air miles plus £350 or £650 cash.
As you have to use then sometime I went the airmiles route.
But it does make you wonder re the true value of air miles.
Also how on earth does the tax etc element come to £350.
Note the £ sums mentioned are approx.
Fairphil - who feels matters are not always that fair

You have to pay for taxes, fees and surcharges.
I'm sure someone will give a detailed breakdown of them.
So its the taxes, charges the airports add on and fuel surcharges. I have probably missed something else too.

It all depends on what you think is good value, I think that for 100,000 miles I can save £2000 and up, on a ticket, is good value.

[Neil]

It is just an unfortunate fact of using miles.

It does show that for instance if you tried to use miles for an economy seat, the actual fare element is quite often under £100 (shows how little the airlines are making), so that would be a total waste of miles.

As Hamster has pointed out, if you use miles for a straight G UC reward, say to SFO, for 100k miles miles and maybe £700 or so taxes compared to £2500-£3000 cash only, it is a great saving.

The PE fare you quote to NYC seems very good, assume it must be a sale fare, so again, that is going against you in the specific instance.

Thanks,
Neil

There is still a PE fare sale to the US ...

One alternative is to book on another airline that is not UK based, like ANZ where the additional charges are much less.

The fare breakdown for 1 PE reward from London to NY is as follows:

Tax Description Tax Code Tax Amount
Operating Airline Fuel & Insurance Surcharge YQ GBP 155.00
USA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service Fee XA GBP 3.10
USA Immigration Service Fee XY GBP 4.40
USA Customs User Fee YC GBP 3.40
UK Air Passenger Duty GB GBP 120.00
UK Passenger Service Charge UB GBP 30.63
USA Passenger Civil Aviation Security Service Fee AY GBP 1.60


Total GBP 318.13


So you can actually see that nearly half of the 'taxes' are actually the Virgin fuel surcharge, and approximately the other half is the government imposed APD. One of these the airline can affect, the other, it can't. Either way, Virgin still makes money on reward fares.

Would generally say, using miles on a East coast route isn't great value (miles for miles..).
Your tax/surcharge fees won't be much difference for a 12hr flight compared to a 6-7 hr and East coast routes tend to be fighting competition so often on sale (like now for instance).
I'd be tempted to hold off using them till you need a long haul flight, where you will appreciate the value more, and in theory gained more benefit for the upgrade...
As always all down to personal preference..

NH

The fact that VS (and most other airlines) can get away with including the fuel surcharge in the 'taxes etc' is an outrage.

The fuel surcharge really should be part of the base fare. Its not an addtional charge imposed by the UK/US Government or by airport operators. It is a cost that it sets itself.

Including it in the 'taxes etc' distorts the debate about APD etc and a lot of people just assume that it is ALL APD and blame the Government

It always makes me laugh when I look at the breakdowns, can you think what it would be like having it in tescos.

Tea Bags = 1.50
VAT = 0.30
Fule for delivery truck = 0.10
Chechout fee = 0.20
Fee because we need to make more money = 0.22
Recept Fee = 0.10

I can see why they list Government stuff but why all the other, just give me a price for something.

Also how can Airmiles give you a miles only fare but not Virgin, or is that there choice?

Another option which more and more of my business colleagues do is to buy a ticket from London to Paris or Amsterdam, and get their long haul flights from there

This way you only have to pay the stupidly high UK fees on the UK to Amsterdam / Paris leg, and the more reasonable European level fees on the long haul

Peter

I agree with tontybear - the fuel surcharge is a joke.

Does using miles from the US - UK cost less than UK-US? Whenever i've upgraded going East bound the taxes have been $20 or thereabouts.

UK APD applies (generally) to flights LEAVING the UK rather than arrivals.

I've just come across exactly the same with KLM. Ten years of saving up miles, I now have enough to get the family to USA for our summer vacation. Still I have to pay just over £2,000 in "Taxes". I especially object to the Fuel Surcharge. These are normal operating costs and will not change, whether or not I take the flight. Gibbyni's analogy is quite correct. It's about time the Trading Standards or the EEC stepped in to stop this happening.

I have a colleague that is a member of the airmiles scheme (airmiles.co.uk) and collects miles via Lloyds Airmiles Duo – Mastercard & Amex. Apparently when he uses his miles for reward flights, there is no tax element. I was surprised by this, there must be some drawbacks like reward seat availability?

In general, airlines have quite a bit of latitude in terms of how they let you redeem, of course, and the actual, real tax element of what they charge is relatively small. VS includes the fuel surcharge in your redemption cash cost, most US airlines do not, for example. This in practice devalues VS miles quite substantially if you use them to redeem full tickets. My answer would be to use them to upgrade.

I have a colleague that is a member of the airmiles scheme (airmiles.co.uk) and collects miles via Lloyds Airmiles Duo – Mastercard & Amex. Apparently when he uses his miles for reward flights, there is no tax element. I was surprised by this, there must be some drawbacks like reward seat availability?

I used to find "Airmiles" to be quite good value for Europe, due to the fact the taxes are all in. But for TATL, I've only ever seen good availability on indirect flights with legacy carriers at silly o'clock and with long layovers. YMMV.

Regards
R3dV

In general, airlines have quite a bit of latitude in terms of how they let you redeem, of course, and the actual, real tax element of what they charge is relatively small. VS includes the fuel surcharge in your redemption cash cost, most US airlines do not, for example. This in practice devalues VS miles quite substantially if you use them to redeem full tickets. My answer would be to use them to upgrade.

Only potential downside to this is the fact that a qualifying fare can be pretty expensive.
IMHO the best way to view this scheme is as a discount fares programme; its the perception that you'll get a free fare that disappoints. My own preference is to save them up and use for UC rewards (we'd never fly this class if not for Flying Club) and try to upgrade sale econ reward fares with the AMEX PE vouchers. It doesn't seem so bad to pay out for the charges if the PE fare cost sub 30k miles.
But like my mother says 'nothings free son...'