DL London upgrade tax
Today I flew LGW-ATL on a M coach ticket upgraded to BE with a SWU. I bought the $1100 ticket a few months ago. When I arrived to check in at LGW today, I was told that I would have to pay 20 British pounds additional. I checked my luggage, but they sent me to another line to wait to pay the additional fee. They said that the British government had increased the departure tax on business class only and they were "required" to collect it. Since we had coach tickets, we had only paid the "coach departure tax" not the "business class departure tax". There was a long line at the ticket counter of upset Medallion level folks waiting to pay this tax. Turns out they are charging only those who had used a Skymiles upgrade to upgrade, not paid business class passengers. Also, they said that the British government had increased the tax last October, but Delta decided only 2 weeks ago to pass it onto passengers.
Honestly, I don't mind paying the taxes levied by the government; the airline doesn't control that. The thing that was upsetting is that DL only told us when we showed up at the airport in a foreign country to fly home. DL didn't notify me before leaving on my trip (they have my address, phone number, and email address). They didn't notify me when I checked in on the USA to London segments. And, the agent said that DL had been just paying this tax themselves without additional charge to the customer since October (8 months). Certainly, they had plenty of time to decide what to do and how to do it. I think they should have notified the customers affected before they left on their trip. Of course, the only recourse the ticket agent offered was not being given a boarding pass if you didn't pay. When I said that I wasn't happy, she said "would you like the address to customer service in Atlanta?".
So, if you're traveling to or from any United Kingdom airport on DL, be prepared to pay extra at the airport when you depart the UK airport if you are using an upgrade.