<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (vulindlela @ Apr 30 2009, 08:20 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>...... Up until the late 80's you would have paid ZERO tax to fly out of the UK!My how times have changed.
My first trip to London, back in 1995, I paid a whopping $29 tax.[/b]
Once they see it's a permit to print money, the sky is the limit.
In addition to the Air Passenger duty, there is an airport service fee ... given the state of our airports, they should pay us to use them.
Feel your pain, I love to visit the U.K., We have a Nonstop UA flight from Den-LHR, which has great cnx out of lhr to Scandinavia, Germany, etc.. which is fine for Going to Europe, Fees,&Taxes are VERY reasonable. However on returns we try go through ANY other EU city UA serves to avoid the HUGE HIT (at least to me =) ) in LHR dept fees and taxes. Pity, used to stopover in London on returns from EU back to US, to visit Friends, shop etc but now only do this enroute. There are much less expensive options out of other Cities in E.U. , That being said, Heathrow can Still be a good dept to US for Non-Revs as there are many choices of flights out of there. The fee has actually reduced the competition for Non rev seats. (slightly)
Retired Person
Keep in mind one important thing which can save you some money.
If LHR is your connecting point to go with your airline to your final destination you should not pay the departure taxes as long as you show your boarding pass to the gate agt.
Ex
CDG/LHR on BA
LHR/ORD on AA if you are a AA employee you will be considered as a through pax.
In order to be valid you must NOT make a stopover of more than 24h.
Same thing applies in NRT or any point where taxes are included in the ticket price.
I guess it should be the same for NW.
zedman - NonRev Correspondent - ZED Travel
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (z @ May 8 2009, 01:57 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>Not necessarily Z. Where we (AA) travel ticketless and service charges are collected after travel, most other airlines issue tickets to their employees (some paper/some electronic). The employee is generally required to pay the service charges and taxes at the time the ticket is issued. There is not guarantee, at that time, that the employee will make an immediate connection so the departure tax is collected. At the time of departure, that tax is also generally remitted to the UK Revenue authorities.Keep in mind one important thing which can save you some money.
If LHR is your connecting point to go with your airline to your final destination you should not pay the departure taxes as long as you show your boarding pass to the gate agt.[/b]
We have it good, but that could change.
The APD is exempt if you are in transit. For long haul this is GBP 40 at the back and GBP 80 up front.
You are still required to pay the UB ( Passenger facility charge ) which is GBP 21.20.
At United, taxes and service charge - if applicable, is deducted from your salary after you travel.
As a UK based employee an exemption would not be applicable, but I think it would be difficult to provide tangible proof that you are in transit,
especially if you were standby into the UK. Not saying it's impossible, but we're not talking a few bucks here, so potentially rewarding !
In the UK we have tried many different variations to avoid the high tax, especially at the front of the aircraft, but factor in a ZED in coach
within Europe we still need to pay the GBP 21.20 and GBP 10.00 APD, add the ZED fare, then the departure taxes for FRA, CDG, FCO, AMS, BRU etc ....
less flights = less opportunity to boot, what a pain !
Don't get on = hotel accomodation ... Europe ain't cheap.
They've got us by the short and curlies
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