Tax on checked luggage fee
Oct 14, 2011, 7:24 pm
#1
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Location: Los Angeles, CA, USA
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Tax on checked luggage fee
Recently flew LAX<->PVR. Checked 1 bag and was charged $20 on the outbound. Checked the same bag on the return flight and today noticed that I was charged $20.80 on my credit card. Check-in agent did not mention anything about the additional 80 cents...Alaska customer service rep explained that it's a tax on the fee. I've read that there's no additional tax on the luggage fees on outbound flights from the US...but was wondering if other travelers have run into similar situations on flights coming back to the US.
80 cents is not a big deal but it would've been much better if AS check-in agent disclosed this tax at check-in.
80 cents is not a big deal but it would've been much better if AS check-in agent disclosed this tax at check-in.
Oct 14, 2011, 7:37 pm
#2
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If there was a tax there should be a receipt with a breakdown. That amount of tax is lower % than any sort of tax I've ever heard of. Did they charge you the fee in MX$ and the conversion was a bit off?
Oct 14, 2011, 7:44 pm
#3
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The extra $0.80 is likely a 4% foreign transaction charge levied by your financial institution as the charge took place in a foreign country (Mexico), even though the transaction was in United States Dollars.
Oct 14, 2011, 10:35 pm
#4
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Ding ding ding! Not sure why csr mentioned tax, probably just making up facts.
Oct 14, 2011, 10:40 pm
#5
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Oct 15, 2011, 12:14 am
#6
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Online banking systems will sometimes combine charges that are referenced to each other, but will display the individual charges and fees on the monthly statement.
Oct 15, 2011, 12:27 am
#7
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I'm pretty sure it wasn't a foreign transaction charge. The charge was made in US dollars and was coded properly into the charge machine as a USD transaction. On the receipt, the charges were broken down into 2 lines: $20 and tax $0.80. I wasn't required to sign any charge slips; I was just handed a receipt with boarding passes, and the check-in agent informed me the charge is US$20 for my bag.
This is what subsequently the Alaska Air CSR wrote:
Dear xxxxxx,
I appreciate that you took the time to contact Alaska Airlines with regard to the additional .80 on the baggage fee from Puerto Vallarta.
Our service fee is $20.00 for baggage service. The additional .80 for the baggage fee is a tax that has to be charged from Mexico.
Mr. xxxxxx, thank you very much for writing. We look forward to welcoming you aboard an Alaska Airlines flight in the near future.
Again, 80 cents is a very small amount but in my opinion, the agent must fully disclose the charges and not allow the customer to be surprised when seeing the credit card statement.
So the lesson learned here - be aware that there may be a tax on luggage fees when you travel.
This is what subsequently the Alaska Air CSR wrote:
Dear xxxxxx,
I appreciate that you took the time to contact Alaska Airlines with regard to the additional .80 on the baggage fee from Puerto Vallarta.
Our service fee is $20.00 for baggage service. The additional .80 for the baggage fee is a tax that has to be charged from Mexico.
Mr. xxxxxx, thank you very much for writing. We look forward to welcoming you aboard an Alaska Airlines flight in the near future.
Again, 80 cents is a very small amount but in my opinion, the agent must fully disclose the charges and not allow the customer to be surprised when seeing the credit card statement.
So the lesson learned here - be aware that there may be a tax on luggage fees when you travel.
Oct 15, 2011, 1:14 am
#9
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Wirelessly posted (beckoa's PWP wondrousdevice3.0: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.0.0.261 Mobile Safari/534.11+)
The AS version certainly does!
Originally Posted by domirule
By the way, the credit card that I use (Bank of America) does not assess a foreign transaction fee.
Oct 15, 2011, 8:05 am
#10
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Oct 15, 2011, 2:10 pm
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