There was a thread a few months back discussing that if LHR is the airport you leave Europe from (last 24 hrs if memory serves) then you get a nice kick in the nuts for your troubles, an even harder one for business class and the hardest for F.

To specifically answer your question I believe it'd depend how long you were in FRA for before going on to YYC. I believe 24 hrs was the key but I could be wrong.

It'd be interesting to see the breakdown of David's taxes.

I will see if I can post them (taxes) later today.

Being charged extra to go through an airport that no one really likes anyway.....

This is a common misconception.

You do not get charged to go THRU LHR, its leaving ex-UK longhaul that gets you. LHR connections are not actually not bad compared to lets say CDG....

Its AC that has trained us to believe we are paying taxes, oh because there is London in there, when its really scamcharges

Here are connecting taxes:
LHR:
United Kingdom Passenger Service Charge (UB) CA$26.30

CDG:
French Aviation Civile Tax (FR) CA$5.70
French International Passenger Service Charge (QX) CA$8.70
French Airport Tax (FR) CA$17.20


FRA:
German Passenger Service Charge (RA) CA$25.60

UK Air Passenger Duty applies to all passengers departing the UK (not just LHR) for stays over 24 hours.

Current APD ranges from £12.00 to £85.00 for Economy and £24.00 to £170.00 for Business or First Class. The amount of APD depends on the distance traveled.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Passenger_Duty

sounds like no benefit. It is only a 1hr connection in FRA.

Sorry - WNZ to PVG return on Air China, PVG to KIX return on Air Nippon Airways.

rankourabu ^
Taiwaned ^

Thanks to you both, for your extra info!

JJJ

Taxes on my YYC-MAN redemption
 

Here is the breakdown of the taxes on the the YYC-LHR-MAN-FRA-YYC reward I posted above:

Date of issue
20-Jan 2012
Aeroplan Flight Reward
ClassicFlight
Taxes, surcharges and airline fees per passenger (age of 2 and over)
Canada Security Charge (CA) 25.91
U.K. Passenger Service Charge (UB) 48.60
Combined taxes, fees, charges and surcharges *for ClassicFlight, see fare calculation below (XT) 856.15

Additional Charge in Canadian dollars : 0.00
Total in Canadian dollars : 930.66
Ticket Particularities:
AERO REW TKT/
NON REF/NON END

*Fare calculation:
27APR12YYC AC LON R0.00BD MAN R0.00LH FRA R0.00AC YYC
R0.00CAD0.00 END ROE1.00 XT566.00YQ30.00YR25.00SQ1.25XG
25.50RA208.40GB

That sounds about right
$208 for her majesty's APD
$156 for other UK and Canadian taxes
$566 to Air Canada as scamcharges

now you understand why no-one in the BMI forum redeems from the UK - It costs $260+ in tax for a longhaul.
This is why most people take a cheap Y flight to Dublin, Copenhagen or Amsterdam (<$80) and start their awards from there.

Taxes on SFO-FRA
 

Hey all, here's my data point. This flight was booked during the feeding frenzy for 60K Aeroplan, all in J (I-class). Two fun things I learned:

(1) All CO flights 2-cabin domestic First are booked into I-class (we all knew that) and after the merger completes, so will all New United flights.
(2) Any UA flight number that originates overseas on a 3-cabin plane which stops in the US, switches to a 2-cabin plane and continues another US destination will have it's second leg First coded as I-class, bookable via Aeroplan as a Business award.

SFO-(UA)-LAX-(CO)-EWR // Stop 12h
JFK-(SQ)-FRA
-- Destination --
FRA-(SQ)-JFK // Stop 4h
EWR-(CO)-LAS-(CO)-SFO

The feeder flights aren't ideal, but they're definitely doable. I hate the EWR/JFK shuffle but I bought a few Limo credits from Jetsetter that will cover my transfer in comfort if I don't end up able to switch over to a UA p.s. direct. It's all worth it for the SQ A380 :D

These taxes and fees reflect a more circuitous route I changed free because of a schedule change. Those are my two favorite words now :P

DE $17.20 Germany Airport Security Charge
RA $50.20 Germany International Passenger Service Charge
US $32.60 U.S. International Transportation Tax
AY $10.00 U.S. Passenger Safety Fee
XA $5.00 U.S. Agriculture Fee
XY $7.00 U.S. Immigration User Fee
YC $5.50 U.S. Customs User Fee
XF $18.00 U.S. Passenger Facility Charge (SFO)
XF $4.50 U.S. Passenger Facility Charge (LAX)
XF $4.50 U.S. Passenger Facility Charge (LGA)
XF $4.50 U.S. Passenger Facility Charge (LAX)

TOTAL: $159 + $30 Phone Booking Fee

SHA-HND
 

for mid-March 2012.

SHA-HND
HND-SHA

Total: $48.76

Everything on CA. Unimaginable a year ago to booking this on CA but with the recently added fuel surcharges....a similar trip on NH or OZ would have been over $180.

hope this is the correct thread. I am trying to book yyc-sfo and back using a reward and AP (or aircanada) apply the tax "U.S. International Transportation Tax" for 34.60, but the same booking on continental.com doesnt. same flights. reward travel. Google lead me to

http://www.arccorp.com/forms/pp/iah/current/iah7_2.pdf

Which talks about a buffer zone which includes yyc and that this tax should not apply. Anyone been down this road before to a conclusion? Who is right, AP, CO, or is that ARC doc incorrect about the buffer zone? I called AP, spoke to an agent and supervisort who told me to call the US govt, the system charges it so it must be right etc..

==
continental

Taxes/Fees $58.30

Canadian Security Charge $11.90
Conversion
Canada Goods and Services Tax $1.80
Conversion
Canada Airport Improvement Fee $24.60
Conversion
U.S. Customs User Fee $5.50
Conversion
U.S. Immigration User Fee $7.00
Conversion
U.S. APHIS User Fee $5.00
Conversion
September 11th Security Fee $2.50
Conversion

Certain taxes/fees list above are included in the originally quoted price.
==

aeroplan

Total airport taxes, fees and surcharges (CAD)
$99.06

Airport taxes, fees, and surcharges will appear on your credit card statement as an Air Canada charge and will display your ticket number.




Adult(s)


Canada Domestic/International Air Travel Security Charge

$12.10

Canada Goods And Service Tax

$1.86

U.S. International Transportation Tax

$34.60

Canada Domestic/International Airport Improvement Fee

$25.00

U.S. Customs User Fee

$5.70

U.S.A Immigration User Fee

$7.30

U.S Agriculture Fee

$5.20

U.S. Passenger Safety Fee

$2.60

U.S Passenger Facility Charge

$4.70

Total airport taxes, fees and surcharges per passenger

$99.06

Total passengers

1

Total airport taxes, fees and surcharges per passenger type

$99.06

No airline charges the US tax on award tickets except Aeroplan. I have asked that question many times without an answer. Someone once said it may have something to do with the fact that Aeroplan is a separate entity from Air Canada, however, AC issues the ticket, so I'm not sure why that should trigger the tax.

same with NAVCAN wasnt it?
And they end up pocketing that too. It wouldnt surprise me one bit if they pocketed the US tax as well.

I am surprised, surely if that was done it would be breaking a few laws? Charging a tax/surcharge and then not paying that out to the stated party that is is being billed for?
What kind of 'creative accounting' would be required to fudge their numbers to enable AE to actually pocket all these taxes and surcharges?

what, this isnt creative enough for you? Do you know what you are paying :D


Carrier Admin. Service Charge (YQ)
Combined taxes, fees, charges and surcharges (XT)

I know it is only 30 bucks, but it is MY 30 bucks, or yours..we pay enough fees and taxes already on these reward tickets. Anyone with professional experience want to weigh in, am I out to lunch or is the IRS pretty clear about these taxes?

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/...186838,00.html

No Amount Paid for Air Transportation

As a general rule, all amounts paid for the air transportation of persons are subject to tax. Where no amount is paid for air transportation, such as when the transportation is obtained by the redemption of frequent flyer miles, the transaction is not subject to the percentage tax, the domestic segment tax, or international facilities tax. Cite: Rev. Rul. 84-12, 1984-1 C.B. 211. Similarly, where an airline provides its employees with free air transportation, the tax does not apply. However, if the employee pays any amount for the flight, the amount paid is subject to tax. Cite: Rev. Rul. 70-381, 1970-2 C.B. 270.

Its the other taxes I think we are suspicious about. For example NAVCAN, Security Fees, Airport fees etc. Are those fees which AE happily collects from us, going to their intended parities. Surely if AE or AC collected these taxes and then pocketed themselves, that would be fraud? Surely that would easy to easy to discover by looking at their income in each bracket vs their payment to those authorities in each bracket?
The YQ is another matter.
No one really know for sure if AE keeps the YQ or do they cough it up to AC? Who audits AE's accounts/books? Do they release any kind of financial statements?

Sorry, this may be taking this thread off track, but just wondering after the comments on my posting, of my taxes I was 'scammed' on my latest AE redemption. ($930 !)

I just cancelled 4 biz tickets on AP from YUL-CDG at a cost of 90.00 +tax=94.00x4 I just received a credit on each of the 4 tickets: 419.89 x 4!!! We often fly out of Montana and taxes on AP award tickets on United are next to nothing! THis is really scary! I know what country my award travel will originate from.:rolleyes:

The difference in taxes is there, but its negligible vs the money one is charged on fuel scamcharges.

A few weeks ago I received a call from the Aeroplan management group after I sent an email to Calin about the devaluation in the Aeroplan program, I than complained about Aeroplan collecting does US taxes on reward tickets which shouldn't be their answer was that they will look in to it but my guess is they couldn't care less

it works like this;
YQ is actually part of the fare (from the US govt point of view) as it goes to the airline. Hence the flight isn't a free flight and taxes are applicable.

buf-bcn-bio-buf - two tickets $218
 

BUF
EWR
BCN

BIO (Bilbao)
FRA (overnight)
EWR
BUF

$218 two tickets

Continental all the way, except for Lufthansa on BIO-FRA leg. AC direct flights YYZ-BCN would be $1000 for two.

298.70 lhr-mex-ewr-lhr
 

LHR-IAD UA Y
IAD-MEX UA Y
MEX-EWR CO Y (stop)
EWR-LHR CO Y

U.S. Passenger Safety Fee $5.20
U.K. Air Passenger Duty $120.80
U.K. Domestic/International Passenger Service Charge $49.30
Mexico Tourism Tax $21.90
U.S. International Transportation Tax $34.20
U.S Agriculture Fee $10.20
Mexico International Airport Departure Tax $26.90
U.S Passenger Facility Charge $4.60
U.S.A Immigration User Fee $14.40
U.S. Customs User Fee $11.20
Total airport taxes, fees and surcharges per passenger $298.70

Managed to avoid AC but not LHR!

[In December I purchased 2 YUL-MCO tickets using RBC Rewards and 2 direct with AC as my points didn't cover 4 tickets.

I asked AC to cross reference all 4 as we are a family travelling together. They sent me the updated eTickets for all 4.

I then noticed that RBC had charged me $30 extra surcharges per ticket i.e. $60 in total. RBC told me that it is for NAV Canada Surcharges, but my AC tickets state that these surcharges are included in the base price. When I put this to RBC Rewards they let slip that "their computer" removes the NavCan charge from the baseprice and charges this as an extra.

While this practise is itself a bit dubious, I then challenged them on the amount itself. According to AC - http://www.aircanada.com/shared/en/c...surcharge.html this charge should only be $7.5 per leg

Today I received apologies and a $30 refund given that the charge should have only been 2 x (2 legs x $7.50)

Doesn't this mean that they are basically owning up to price gouging?

Booking #1

YYZ-HKG (AC 7) <STOP> HKG-ICN (TG 628) <STOP> ICN-SFO (SQ 16) SFO-YYZ (UA 526)

Total --> Adult $311.96 / Child $295.96

$002.60 - U.S. Passenger Safety Fee
$025.00 - Korea Passenger Service Charge
$025.91 - Canada Domestic/International Air Travel Security Charge
$016.00 - Hong Kong Air Passenger Departure Tax (Child is $0.00)
$003.25 - Canada Harmonized Sales Tax
$025.00 - Canada Domestic/International Airport Improvement Fee
$005.10 - U.S Agriculture Fee
$004.60 - U.S Passenger Facility Charge
$007.20 - U.S.A Immigration User Fee
$005.60 - U.S. Customs User Fee
$191.70 - Carrier Administration Service Charge

Booking #2

YYZ-PEK (AC 31) PEK-HKG (CA 107) <STOP> HKG-ICN (TG 628) <STOP> ICN-SFO (SQ 16) SFO-YYZ (UA 526)

Total --> Adult $326.36 / Child $295.96

$002.60 - U.S. Passenger Safety Fee
$025.00 - Korea Passenger Service Charge
$025.91 - Canada Domestic/International Air Travel Security Charge
$014.40 - China Airport Fee
$016.00 - Hong Kong Air Passenger Departure Tax
$003.25 - Canada Harmonized Sales Tax
$025.00 - Canada Domestic/International Airport Improvement Fee
$005.10 - U.S Agriculture Fee
$004.60 - U.S Passenger Facility Charge
$007.20 - U.S.A Immigration User Fee
$005.60 - U.S. Customs User Fee
$191.70 - Carrier Administration Service Charge

So, connecting over in PEK cost me $14.40 more. Otherwise, the Tax for AC 7 and AC 31 is the same.

Put the location and dates on Expedia and the cheapest flight is from CX for a total of ~$7700 for all 3 PAX. If I select a similar route/time, it show a total of ~$13,000... so I am happy.

A few points:

1. The buffer zone includes cities within 225 miles of the US border.
2. The airline is to charge EITHER the 7.5% US Ticket Tax OR the $16.80 International Arrival/Departure Tax. The latter is only applicable to cities beyond the 225 mile Buffer Zone.
3. For cities within the Buffer Zone, the 7.5% Ticket Tax applies only to the portion received by the airline, which would be the CASC for Aeroplan Reward tickets.

I just booked a reward trip with Aeroplan, with taxes and other charges of CAD$152.00 per person. The same trip, booked on Continental, with EXACTLY the same flights/airlines/aircraft, had a total of USD$78.00 per person. With the dollar at parity, the difference is $74.00 per person. After inspecting the details, the difference in cost was due in some very small part to exchange rate differences (a few cents here or there) , And then Aeroplan's additional charges of their Carrier Administration Service Charge of $27.00; the US International Departure/Arrival Tax of $34.10 (2 x USD$16.80); the Nav Canada charge of $7.50; and a US Passenger Facility Charge of $4.60.

Why is Aeroplan charging these and not Continental? I thought the *A airlines were now charging the equivalent of the CASC (this is a flight from Canada to the US and return: YOW-HNL). Apparently Continental has not implemented this yet. The Nav Canada charge seems legitimate, but yet Continental does not charge its reward passengers for it - why? The US Passenger Facility Charge appears to be a grab by Aeroplan, and charging the US International Departure/Arrival Tax is clearly wrong. If anything was to be charged, it should be the ticket tax, at 7.5 % of the ticket price (which is the CASC of $27.00), and would be $2.03, not $34.20.

Aeroplan needs to come clean on what it is charging its customers.

Curiosity got the better of me, so I decided to look further at the CASC. According to the Aeroplan website, Reminder on Fuel Surcharges, Continental and United Airlines are not among the *A carriers that charge a fuel surcharge on reward tickets. Further, Aeroplan states that "The fuel surcharge amounts to be applied by Aeroplan for flights on Star Alliance airlines will be the same as those applied by the individual airlines within their own frequent flyer programs."

So why the CASC ("fuel surcharge") for my YOW-HNL trip? Could it be for the AC portion? I checked that portion alone for the same dates/flights, and there is no CASC. So how is it that combining an AC flight with a number of UA and CO flights on a *A Reward ticket results in the CASC?

AA didn't charge the taxes but they do charge YQ on BA redemptions......

YYZ-NRT-HKG (STOP) AC/NH
HKG-NRT (STOP) NH
NRT-YYZ AC

$393.26 all Y

YOW-YYZ (AC) X
YYZ-NRT (AC) I
NRT-SGN (NH) I
SGN-ICN (OZ) I
ICN-JFK (OZ) I

$450.23 and of course it's mostly YQ :rolleyes:
The up-side is that SGN-ICN on OZ is in a 3-cabin 777 where First is sold as Business, and I was able to snag a seat up there. That should be pretty awesome!

I just flew on the SGN-ICN flight and it is brutal. 4:15 of flying time, and they don't turn off the lights until over an hour into the flight.

You will be a wreck in ICN.

P.S. I hope you didn't budget more than 24 hours in SGN itself - my wife and I were bored stiff there

Hey! Yeah that does sound brutal. Hmm, I'll see if some availability opens up later on on a different routing (maybe SGN-NRT). Yeah I've only got 2 days booked at SGN before continuing on. Thanks for the suggestions!

Aeroplan Flight Reward
ClassicFlight YUL-BNA connecting in YYZ
Taxes, surcharges and airline fees per passenger (age of 2 and over)
Canada Security Charge (CA)Canada Harmonized Sales Tax (HST #10009-2287) (RC)Combined taxes, fees, charges and surcharges *for ClassicFlight, see fare calculation below (XT)Total in Canadian dollars
The only positive is I used the the free short-haul companion ticket from Amex Aeroplan Plus Platinum so two tickets only cost 15,000 miles.

YOW-GGT (Exuma)
 

YOW-YYZ-GGT-YYZ-YOW

Total --> Adult $138.95

$25.30 - Bahamas International Passenger Departure Tax
$07.10 - Bahamas Security Fee
$25.91 - Canada Domestic/International Air Travel Security Charge
$03.64 - Canada Harmonized Sales Tax
$28.00 - Canada Domestic/International Airport Improvement Fee
$34.00 - Carrier Administration Service Charge (YQ)
$15.00 - Nav Canada - Air Navigation Services

Do we have to pay YQ on reward flights operared by SN?

86 EUR for BER-BRU-BER is just a wee but tad ridiculous...

SN YQ surcharge (YQ) €86.00
German Airport Security Tax (DE) €4.60
German Passenger Service Charge (RA) €7.33
German Air Transport Tax (OY) €7.50
Belgium Passenger Service and Security Charge (BE) €27.49


Also, while I'm here, is there a special trick to getting the 30$ call-in fee waived when trying to book intra Europe 1 flights as they are absolutely unbookable on AE.com?

At least it's in J
 

YVR->YYZ on AC
YYZ->FCO on AC
FCO->SPU on OU - Destination
SPU->ZAG on OU
ZAG->ATH on OU - Stop
ATH->ZRH on LX
ZRH->LHR on LX
LHR->YVR on AC

All segments in business class. Total taxes and fees $976.13 CAD plus 105,000 points. If I'm reading it right YQ is $726.:mad:

Ouch!

I just ticketed another Asia 1 Business award using AC, LH, OS, OU, and TK. I was lucky that my itinerary was to much for the "autoquote" calculation to work and the agent had to do it manually. Having the agent calculate fees is almost always a good thing for you. My fuel surcharge (YQ) was $180 and total the total taxes and fees were less than $350/ticket. Quite happy with that considering AC is flying us Trans-Atlantic each way.

What? Did you sit at the airport? SGN is great place..plus you can visit the Cu Chi tunnels. Good shopping, good food and a good amount of history.

2 days is good for SGN, its a good spot.