New SAF /Environment Levy/ surcharge announced on VS Flights

Not sure if this is old news resurfacing but according to Lewis Henderson on GB News (reporting an interview with Mr Weiss with the Telegraph) Virgin are adding £8, £12 and £24 surcharges for flights in Economy, Premium and Upper respectively - not clear if per flight or per round trip but pessimistically I assume per flight.

"The Virgin Atlantic CEO explained that surcharges were chosen over general price increases to maintain transparency with customers."

My reading of what he actually means is they can also add the surcharge to customers paying for flights with earned loyalty points, it has nothing to do with transparency but is more to do with adding yet more hidden fees and charging those fees to everyone, imho.

Seems BA likely to do similar and article suggests Lufthansa already done this too at an even higher amount than VS are proposing.

Just seen the news. To be honest £8, £12, £24 is not that expensive. Lufthansa is way more. And the fact it will be charged as SAF levy, means it’s not a hidden fee….

Looks like it's per round trip, if I'm reading my latest miles booking for LHR-LAS return correctly with "Carbon Surcharge (YR) GBP 24.00".

Perhaps saying 'hidden' wasn't the right word, I take the point, but just another addition to the now very long list of added surcharges and so it does not show in the 'base price' during the booking process BUT unlike most of the other surcharges I guess are set by outside agencies it is a fee (like the YQ one) that is under VS control?

Base fare GBP 0.00
Carbon Surcharge (YR) GBP 24.00
Carrier Imposed Surcharge (YQ) GBP 700.00
United States - Custom User Fee (YC) GBP 5.80
United Kingdom - Air Passenger Duty (APD) (GB) GBP 194.00
United States - Immigration and Naturalization Fee(Immigration User Fee) (XY) GBP 5.60
United States - Passenger Civil Aviation Security Service Fee (AY) GBP 4.50
United Kingdom - Passenger Service Charge (UB) GBP 51.72
United States - Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Fee (APHIS User Fee - Passengers (XA) GBP 3.00
United States - Transportation Tax (US) GBP 36.60
Total Amount GBP 1025.22

[mitchja]

VS have been doing this for at least a month already.

I paid the £24 YR charge on my New York booking which I booked 2nd December.

It was also included in my Air France booked VS/DL flights I booked on Saturday.

The Telegraph first reported this was on it's way back in July last year.

Thanks for the link to the old Telegraph article James, has lots more detail there on potential future rises too as UK moves similarly to EU, if a little faster, on increasing use of SAF.

So it was largely 6 months old news resurfacing now as being relatively recently implemented, I must have missed it back then.

I got the "Carbon Surcharge (YR) GBP 24.00" on my above quoted booking on 9th January for a points LHR-LAS return, but have to say I didn't really notice it among all the other charges when booking (just saw the usual varying miles depending on date of flights and similarly varying total UC rewards add-on fees between £665, £996 and the £1025 I actually paid!).

Thanks again James.

Also just checked my booking I made last week for LHR-SFO, ATL-LHR, UC.

2x £24 Carbon surcharge.

In the grand scheme of things it’s ok for me as all taxes I paid was £1,375 for 2 adults return in UC, which is way cheaper than under the previous scheme

I was only charged £8 YR (Carbon Surcharge) on an Upper Class redemption - both ways on G fare - that I did in early December. VS still took just under £1001 off me in total, £700 of which was their YQ charge, so straight into their pockets.

Honestly, this new carbon surcharge is just another sneaky way for airlines to tack on extra costs without really changing the ticket price. Sure, it’s not massive, but when you add it to all the other hidden fees, it starts to feel like airlines are just finding new ways to squeeze more money out of us without being upfront about it. It makes sense from a business standpoint, but as a passenger, it’s a bit of a slap in the face.