anbhc

Whats the highest taxes you've seen on Delta award tickets?

On flights from the US-> Asia its only around $70+, but checked SFO-London Heathrow and it was $207 in taxes on a free 60K economy award ticket.

CJKatl

I just paid $107 ATL-INC-BKK through DL for KE. Oddly, different flights had different fees, even those that flew the same route in some cases. The cheapest, IIRC, was $80 and the most expensive was $120. Oddly, those that did not include a plane change in the US before hitting NRT or INC were more expensive than some that had two legs, with a stop in the US (cannot remember if the less expensive stops were DTW, SEA, PDX, MSP or LAX) before hitting Asia.

FWIW, KE Prestige came in at 80k pts and was the least expensive routing points-wise. This was not offered in my online searches, but a phone agent found it. I called because I needed something that left after noon on Friday but got into BKK on Saturday, not Sunday. I was seeing 110k points in coach, but nothing that left after noon, or 200k+ in business.

EZEDoesIt

I paid $300+ AMS-ATL-SVO in J.

javabytes

Government imposed taxes only? Or taxes & fees? Because if the latter, DL buries its nefarious international origination surcharge in that line, so flights ex-Europe, originating in France and especially the UK, are likely to bring you the highest taxes & fees.

For example, 581 GBP (~935 USD) for a round trip LHR to the US in Business class.

sethb

At one point, I checked LHR-BOS in Economy. The fees & taxes were about 80% of the total cash fare.

3Cforme

If the OP wants to talk about taxes (as mandatory amounts remitted to governments) this isn't specific to Delta. A return from London brings UK Air Passenger Duty and a UK Air Passenger Servive Charge, whether award or paid fare. APD is non-trivial, and even higher for premium cabin tickets.

Here's a Matrix fare for coach UA SFO-LHR-SFO:



'Fuel surcharges,' whether by BA (collected by AA and US for BA-operated award flights, too), or as DL's international origin surcharge, are quite a different matter.

rwoman

Yep...which usually drives me to just book a mileage-earning ticket. And APD is comparatively only a fraction of those fees.



Alternatively, I've booked LAX-NRT in past years for low mileage and about $45 to fly J TPAC.

bgriff

Note that this is still pretty good. As others have mentioned DL is stuck charging you the UK Air Passenger Duty, but most other options for flights to the UK (using BA miles, using VS miles, using AA miles to redeem on BA) you would also be charged "fuel surcharges" by the airline, and can easily pay $700-$1200 for a "free" roundtrip ticket to the UK on top of the miles redeemed.

DL does charge these fees for travelers originating in Europe, to be in line with what FlyingBlue does.

AFAIK, if talking strictly about true government-imposed taxes, the UK APD is about as expensive as you're going to get on a simple nonstop roundtrip.

rwoman

APD only makes up a fraction of those fees and it only applies to the leg leaving the UK. For example, you could fly JFK-LHR - DUB-JFK and avoid it. For LHR-LAX in J, APD is ~$111 (just paid it last night). This does not account for the additional $500+...on an award...

bgriff

As I said, when you book a ticket originating in LHR, you get charged fuel surcharges, in which case the APD is minor compared to the surcharges. When you book a ticket originating in LAX (including a roundtrip), you don't, and the APD is the biggest part of the fees -- though there are still various customs and immigration fees, as well as the usual Sept 11 security fee, in addition to APD, similar to what you pay on any international ticket.

You are correct that you can avoid departing the UK on your award ticket to avoid APD, but you do still need to leave the UK sometime ... if you book a separate LHR-DUB flight you get charged a lower APD rate (because it's based on how far your departing flight takes you) but you do still have to pay APD.

rwoman

Just for fun...looked at LHR-LAX-LHR on random dates:

Economy: 60k +£389.06 ($627)
Business: 125k + £578.06 ($931)

The above includes a £359 Carrier-imposed International Surcharge and £138 APD.

Revenue Ticket:
Economy: £538 ($866)
Business: £3387 ($5456)

Barring the only choice of a middle seat, I'd probably go for the Economy revenue ticket.

*********
LAX-LHR-LAX:

Award:
Economy: 60k + $207.30
Business: 162.5k + $318.80

Revenue Ticket:
Economy: $1030
Business: $5655

sethb

Yes, that's the sort of thing I found.

EZEDoesIt

Even if you non-rev ex-UK you get hit with the APD.

rwoman

Then buy a cheap ticket to DUB and non-rev from there; I've done this to take advantage of cheaper fares and avoid APD. APD is no secret...

EZEDoesIt

Sometimes time is more valuable than money.