Originally Posted by
Dave Noble
UA will not be issuing awards on CX. CX specifically applies it as a surcharge, if on a different airline, it may be different
So that's the difference. It's not a government-imposed fee, which would not trigger US taxes. It may be that CX (and all other carriers) is charged $6/passenger for security, but that it's intended to be a fee on the carrier, not the airline (much like landing fees). CX deciding to pass it on sounds like what car rental agencies have been doing: passing fees that are levied against the car rental agency, as opposed to the renter, on to the renter instead of including them in the base fare. On the airline side, it's no different than fuel surcharges.