Hidden charges on flights

Chris Maunder

I'm trying to pop down to Washington and I see a flight for $169. Sounds great! So I go through the process:

Flight 1 - Departing airfare (Tango Plus) 169.00
Flight 2 - Returning airfare (Tango Plus) 169.00
Surcharges NAV 135.00
Canada Airport Improvement Fee SQ 20.00
U.S.A Transportation Tax US 31.30
U.S Agriculture Fee XA 5.08
Air Travellers Security Charge (ATSC) CA 7.94
U.S Passenger Facility Charge XF 4.57
Canada Goods and Services Tax XG 25.05
September 11 Security Fee AY 2.54
U.S.A Immigration User Fee XY 7.11
Total airfare and taxes before options 576.59

This is ridiculous. Taxes come to 70% of the listed price. How is this even vaguely legal?

cheers, Chris Maunder

CodeProject.com : C++ MVP

Christian Graus

Half of these defy any sort of logic. Sounds like a rort to me. I've never seen anything like this when flying US to US.

Christian Graus No longer a Microsoft MVP, but still happy to answer your questions.

keyboard warrior

wow. there is a September 11 Security Fee... they can turn anything into a fee.

----------------------------------------------------------- "When I first saw it, I just thought that you really, really enjoyed programming in java." - Leslie Sanford

DownUnderDev

no wonder governments bail out airlines in trouble they cant afford to lose the tax revenues lol

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." -Albert Einstein

Jason Lepack LeppyR64

Those aren't all "taxes" that you're adding up, some are "fees", that's different. I'm going to tell you that 580 bucks round trip is a steal right now. My fiancee lived in Alberta and I lived in Ottawa, getting a round trip for 800 was doing awesome. Also, as an aside, I would never fly Air Canada, or Tango (same thing). I've had way too many hassles with them. I fly WestJet, all the time.

Super Lloyd

Now in Australia or Europr (or both?) hidden charge are illegal, total price should be announced up front! That's cool!

A train station is where the train stops. A bus station is where the bus stops. On my desk, I have a work station.... _________________________________________________________ My programs never have bugs, they just develop random features.

Yusuf

even in US they have to add the fee, but may play with the fine print they list base price as 199* * not including bla bal $10, bla bla $19.99

Yusuf

Chris Meech

Uhh. Hate to state the obvious, but if those are hidden charges, how do you know about them. :)

Chris Meech I am Canadian. [heard in a local bar] In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. [Yogi Berra]

Lost User

Chris Maunder wrote:

Taxes come to 70% of the listed price.

...and over 56% of those "taxes" are lumped into a single nondescript item - "Surcharges" which in reality is probably not a tax or fee at all but money that goes to the carrier. X|

Super Lloyd

Ho, I see, let's sue them (for misleading the consumer)! ;P

A train station is where the train stops. A bus station is where the bus stops. On my desk, I have a work station.... _________________________________________________________ My programs never have bugs, they just develop random features.

Rob Manderson

Chris Maunder wrote:

U.S Agriculture Fee XA 5.08

??????

Rob Manderson My bloghttp://robmanderson.blogspot.com[^]

Lost User

The US Agriculture Fee is there 'cuz most visitors to the US will ultimately eat a pizza.... What do they eat as a starter? Salad. What is salad made of? Vegetables. Lots and lots of vegetables. Where in the US do vegetables come from? California. Who picks vegetables in California? Illegal Mexicans. Where does the $ come from to pay for all the various services that illegals receive? Taxes. Lots and lots of taxes!

Dirk Higbee

You should see my Comcast bill. :)

Don't take any wooden nickels.

Ashley van Gerven

Why stop there...

Flight Attentdant smile fee :`) 0.99
Safety instruction mini-course fee 2.50
High altitude bladder relief fee 0.50
Luggage handling fee 5.44
Airport sniffer dog tax 0.40 (or a doggie biscuit)

"For fifty bucks I'd put my face in their soup and blow." - George Costanza

El Corazon

I know I will loose points for even knowing this movie exists.... The Tax Man: You just docked? Popeye: I has. The Tax Man: Ah ha, let's see here, that'll be 25¢ docking tax. Popeye: What for? The Tax Man: Where's your sea craft? Popeye: It ain't no sea craft, it's me dinghy and it's under the wharf. The Tax Man: Ah ha. ahh-ha. This your goods? Popeye: They is. The Tax Man: Yeah. You're new in town right? Popeye: If you call this a town, yes. The Tax Man: Well, first of all, there's 17¢ new-in-town tax, and there's 45¢ rowboat-under-the-wharf tax, and one dollar leaving-your-junk-lying-around-the-wharf tax, so all together, you owe the Commodore $1.87. Popeye: Uh, who's this Commodore? The Tax Man: Is that the nature of question? There's a nickel question tax.

_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb) John Andrew Holmes "It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others."

Steve Mayfield

the 9/11 fee helps to fund the TSA (Transportation Security Agency)...

Steve

MarkB777

Chris Maunder wrote:

September 11 Security Fee AY 2.54

haha...

Mark Brock Click here to view my blog

Lost User

There was some stuff about this on Userfriendly about a month ago. Is this unique to Canada?

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Rich Leyshon

I often book flights between UK and Germany with Ryanair. Quite often the flights may be £1 and free to return but the total cost is usually at least £70! Still, you can't complain about that when I consider that I went to Germany on some "half price" tickets, courtesy of a newspaper promotion in about 1990 and it cost me £200! Rich

Mike Dimmick

So, if we don't pay that fee, can we avoid the security theatre?

DoEvents: Generating unexpected recursion since 1991