As I prepare my itinerary for my next long chain of consultancy visits, my best customer (the one I do webcast editing for) has just purchased my ticket for the transatlantic leg. Now I suspect someone at Continental Airlines has a bit of a Libertarian or small government or at the very least a ‘do not blame us’ bent because the statement actually breaks out how each ‘involved government’ is stealing my money:
Equivalent Airfare:……………………….565.00
U.K. Air Passenger Duty: ……………….79.60
U.K . Passenger Service Charge:……..25.90
U.S. Customs User Fee:…………………..5.50
U.S. Immigration User Fee:………………7.00
U.S. APHIS User Fee:………………………5.00
U.S. Passenger Facility Charge:…………4.50
U.S. Federal Transportation Tax:……..30.20
U.S. Security Service Fee: ……………….2.50
Per Person Total: ……………………….725.20
I must admit it is much worse than I had thought. At times like these I remember the words of a southern gent I once worked with on a project at CSC: “Back where I come from, servicing was what a bull did to a cow.”
After reading the above, I am feeling very well ‘serviced’ by the UK and US governments.
In defence of the government (well, no, not really) the “UK Passenger Service Charge” is a charge made by the airport (which is owned by a private company), not a charge made by the government. The “US passenger facility charge” is probably similar, but in truth I don’t know. Airlines started breaking this out a few years back in order that they could advertise lower headline fares without actually reducing fares, and in particular so that discount airlines could advertise fares as “Free” with a small footnote that taxes and charges were excluded, when in fact a good chunk of the “charges” then did go straight to the bottom line of the airline. Similar things often happen with “fuel surcharge” and “insurance and security surcharge” – in effect the airline has rather arbitrarily excluded some of its costs from the base fare quoted and then added them back later (often with a markup) after making them look like taxes on the invoice.
The “insurance and security surcharge” is quite a pernicious one, actually. Airlines added this to a lot of fares after 911 to supposedly cover their extra security costs, but in most cases the size of the surcharge is much greater than the additional security costs, and the rest of the money goes straight to the bottom line.
I have nothing against airlines charging anything they want, but quoting the fare in such a way that initially appears to be less than it is and (particularly) pretending that things that are not taxes actually are taxes is not a terribly honest way to behave.
But almost all of the items on the break out I show *ARE* taxes and fees paid to the government. You correctly point out that there is a US $4.50 airport fee and a whopping $30 UK airport fee. Given that Belfast Aldergrove provides much less than Newark Liberty, one wonders if much of this fee has to do with UK taxes on the airport.
Other than that, everything on this list looks to me like it goes straight into the pockets of the evil ones.
Dale: I wasn’t really disagreeing with you. The others all are indeed taxes and government is getting very greedy. The scam I was talking about is a very real one though, and one I find rather annoying. (Other airlines are often much worse than this example).
I’ve praised(Link) Continental on this front as well.
Meanwhile, I recall, many years ago, a government (probably New York City, but I forget), contemplating a law (not enacted, to my knowledge) forbidding hotels from itemizing taxes on receipts (i.e., trying to prevent travelers from realizing just their hotel bills were so high).
NYC’s hotel tax, incidentally, was (last time I checked) 15.625% +$4/night.
the tax take would not be so bad if they actually spent it on something worthwhile
wasn’t the U.K . Passenger Service Charge originally called the fuel surcharge?
I do not know. But to be really cynical… perhaps they changed the name so they could keep the charge and then add a new ‘greenish’ charge to fuel since the EU wants people to travel less. That leaves them soak us for even more money.
Oh well. Eventually the fatted calf will keel over from loss of blood… and by then I sincerely hope my Wyoming venture is up and running and I am (mostly) away from it.
This retired Continental employee remembers that years ago the airlines were actually forbidden to tell passengers what was tax and what was fare. The government didn’t want the embarassment.
I can’t remember if the ban was a law or a regulation or when it started and ended. Probably1975-1985 era.
I have worked with airline costs. It is very expensive to move people from continent to continent at all hours and at high speed.
Airlines don’t make much money, if the accounting were more realistic that $725.20 probably doesn’t cover the actual cost – the tax payer is still subsidizing the infrastructure. That is not all bad, schools are subsidized by those w/o children and hospitals by those in great health.
Personally I would feel better about the extra $200 if it were indeed going to private infrastructure rather than being poured down a bunch of bureaucratic government ratholes.
I am quite aware of some of the other subsidies. For example, all US airliners are built to a more massive than necessary spec so that they can be converted directly to military cargo use just by stripping out the seats. They are the ‘domestic reserver fleet’ of cargo aircraft.
That extra weight also means extra fuel use as well.
I seem to recall reading somewhere that the coach fare really just covers the costs, the profit is in the front of the plane (and as they give away mileage upgrades, there is only about half of that to sell) – American knows exactly who (and how much future revenue) they lost when the WTC was destroyed as those NY investment bankers were heavy consumers of full-fare purchased first class air travel.
Absolutely correct. First Class pays the bills. That’s why they treat them so nice!
Also, the monstrous attack on the WTC indirectly killed the Concorde. It was at that time of its life a money making proposition, finally… but it depended on high value customers, many of who were murdered by those despicable subhumans who crashed airplanes with the intent of immolating men, woman and children.
Perhaps it is also worth pointing out that in “rip-off Britain” the UK listed taxes/charges are, as is so often the case, just about twice that of the US taxes/charges.
When I was a boy, gasoline pumps listed the amount of excise tax charged on each gallon. That is now illegal. The same government which collects more in taxes on fuel than the oil companies make in profit wants you to blame the oil companies for the high price of fuel.
Dale, interesting remark about the ‘reserve’ function of US planes.
First I’ve heard about it, and you would think it would place them at a massive commercial disadvantage to Airbus.
Also, if that’s the case why did the DC10 floors collapse when the cargo-bay depressurised?
Hope the price displayed was in dollars;I never pay more than £ 350 for a return flight to North America, usually a lot less.
In theory, it’s optional. A plane can be left out of the reserve if Uncle Sucker isn’t asked to subsidize it with favorable financing. However, as US airlines are bigger welfare queens than even farmers and ranchers, pretty much every commercial bird is available to move troops.
Dale, it must be even worse that they told you, because the first item is also pumped up to pay for the income tax that the airline employees pay! The only thing that govmints seem to be good at, is taking as much from the golden goose as they can, without killing it!