Originally Posted by u2fan
The airlines lobbied hard several months ago to be allowed to include the fuel surcharge as a tax. The benefit to them was when the advertise a fare, they do not have to include this 'tax' in their ad making the fare look much cheaper. It now falls under the much more vague 'plus taxes'.
The second part of your statement is not true. Airlines are still required to include fuel surcharges in advertising.