B747-437B

I am trying to make a DC redemption for travel 9 days from now (which means tomorrow is my last day to ticket things due to the weekend). Travel is one-way on Ethiopian Airlines leaving Mumbai in Economy Class.

Both Ethiopian's own website and ITA list the YQ chargeable as a certain figure, but BMI is insisting that the YQ is more than double that amount
and have come up with total taxes almost triple what they should be. Needless to say this is ridiculous, especially since the paid one-way ticket on Ethiopian would be about the same price including the fare, taxes and fuel/security surcharges.

My question is simple (and I've tried searching) - is it possible/advisable to pursue a refund of the excess YQ after ticketing? Or am I better off stamping my feet and insisting on the correct amount being charged before the ticket is issued? Or just giving up?

Any advice appreciated! Thanks.

echino

GBP 370 total is approximately what cash + miles business class ticket for that route would cost if taxes are calculated separately for the two segments.

You should use LHR as a sales point on ITA to get fees in GBP. BOM-ADD-LLW in economy should be GBP 94.50 YR + GBP 43.60 taxes + GBP 4.50 credit card fee = GBP 142.60 total for miles only booking. Call ICC and request to re-calculate and refund.

B747-437B

The catch I initially had was that ICC said they couldn't auto-price it and had to refer it to "ticketing department" for the fare quote.

They came back with this 2 days later and I nearly had a heart attack since I expected something in the range of GBP 150 after doing my homework.

Since time is short, my question still stands. If I were to accept ticketing at this inflated rate, would it be possible for me to get the refund of the additional amount charged after the ticket was issued? Assuming of course that I cannot get them to see sense and accept the correct amount.

jbfield

There was a post not so long ago that got their over charged taxes and fees refunded. It took at least 6 months so I suspect it happened after ticketing.

I have a similar problem; ticket is issued, but ICC still looked into it for me and found a discrepancy. Still waiting to find out the outcome though.

I'd say, ask them for a breakdown of the taxes and mention it is far higher than you expected (useful if you can pin-point which bit, i.e. YQ) and ask if they can investigate. I don't think issuing the ticket should matter because they should still sell you something using the correct taxes and fees. It's not a negotiation process to get the best price, but a set amount according to the tariffs, i.e. too much is their error, not yours, regardless of whether you discover this before you pay or afterwards.

holtju2

Was just doing a simple DXB-VIE-PRG OS C redemption. The taxes didn't match at all what I had calculated and the lady referred the PNR to their "tax" department. After the call, I checked the amount they came up with and it seems that they calculated both segments separately point to point. I think that this is the case with OP as well.

I don't think that they use GDS to calculate the "taxes". They couldn't be so wrong at time if they would.

B747-437B

Thanks for the tips. I've called back but now the "tax department" is closed for the day so I have to try again at 8am tomorrow morning!

If I continue to get grief from them all the way through tomorrow afternoon, I'll go ahead and ticket and then fight it out but it would be so much easier if they just got it right the first time!

PS. The last agent I spoke to admits that they "possibly" messed up with the taxes. He saw an Ethiopia departure tax and the Indian Business Class luxury tax in the calculation, neither of which should have been there.

caz312

I also had an issue with the JN (India Luxury tax) almost fell off my seat when they called me back after calculating the taxes to advise they were over £700 each. Thanks to this forum I asked about the JN tax which they said was over £500..I said they should not be charging it but if necessary I would pay and deal through refunds. They went off to check it again and said they would call back...which they did with the new £200ish tax figure that I was expecting (the worrying thing was that if I did not use this forum I would have assumed they were giving me the correct information and be £1000+ poorer!)

GoldCircle

That was my first instinct. The Indian luxury tax thing is a well known DC flaw - and they do refund it.

I cannot tell you what to do, but if it were me, I'd try to get the tax reduced before paying, but would also be fairly sure of a refund after the fact, if you ran out of time.

midnightflight

a few weeks ago i booked a c-award on lh mco-fra and wondered about the taxes. i thought back then that i was charged too much. does anybody mind telling me if this is correct? this is what i got from the pax receipt through amadeus:

TAX : GBP 254.10YQ 10.50US 111.10XT
TOTAL : GBP 375.70

what is xt?

when i booked the opposite direction through m&m i only paid a total of approximately 280 $.

i got suspicious before booking, but i had three different icc agents calculating the taxes and fees, and all came up with the same amount.

echino

Did you book miles + cash? If yes, the cash portion of GBP 105.00 plus credit card fee of GBP 4.50 come close to the XT above.

YQ and US are correct.

h15t0r1an

ICC will not listen even if you tell them exactly which line of their tax calculation is incorrect, and in several languages why it is incorrect.

It's breathtaking. I had exactly this same problem in the past couple of weeks with them. For 5 days I argued and explained politely and carefully, which part of their calculations was applying a rule that did not apply. I produced ITA printout for them. I produced regular revenue ticket tax breakdown for them. I covered breaking down the ticket in several different ways, all the different ways came out to my figure not theirs. In the end I ended up spending a night at an airport due to a last minute route change as I simply could not get them to correct their figures. Personally I think their tax department doesn't exist. Or it's staffed by individuals who could benefit from extra training and maybe have not been given the opportunity.

At one point early on in my querying their calculation, inside of 10 minutes they gave me 3 different totals chargeable, each of which they swore was correct "computer says" and then "tax department says" and then "airline says" What they said contradicted the actual airline revenue ticket tax printout I provided. They did not seem to think 3 different values in 10 minutes undermined their credibility.

At one point we lost a key segment off my booking. The airline took it back as the booking had not been ticketed.. ICC were very kind and approached the other airline to get the segment back. However by this point still being asked to pay tax which the relevant government does not collect, I had to accept a changed routing which lost key parts of the value of my trip just in order that more segments did not get lost off he booking and to actually be able to fly.

I have no issue with the ICC staff I deal with who were only trying their best and were very helpful when their systems allowed them to be. But I feel sorry for them being under so much pressure when they probably did not get the opportunity of a thorough training particular about taxes, YQ etc.

So I wish you luck. If you're travelling in Economy, just buy the revenue ticket instead.

gpb_croppers63

I don't think I've ever been charged the correct taxes by the ICC. I've given up arguing with them as they always say they're right and I'm wrong so now I just book the ticket and query the taxes afterwards. The Social Media team have always been really helpful with this and got it resolved very quickly. I e-mail a breakdown of the taxes I've been charged and a breakdown of what they should be from ITA. I've got it done before ticketing every time so haven't had to worry about getting it refunded.

So my advice is basically go ahead and book it and then e-mail BD straight away asking them to sort it before ticketing. You should be fine then.

B747-437B

"Tax department" is part of the "UK Team" which is closed on Saturdays.

They will call me back on Monday morning after reviewing. They say not to worry about the 7-day advance because the original reservation was made in time.

Here's hoping...

gpb_croppers63

You should be fine. It's just the reservation that needs to be made 7 days in advance. The ticket doesn't have to be issued so quickly as long as the operating carrier doesn't require ticketing within a certain time (such as 24 hours for SQ). If you have a problem, just tell them to ticket it and sort it out with BD in the UK on Monday. You shouldn't have a problem with that at all.

cmcbugg

I too have had endless tax problems (particularly with tickets ex-Argentina - same problem as the Indian tax), and I've always just booked the ticket and fought for the refund afterwards. It's not always easy. It can take many calls, emails and months, but eventually as long as you keep fighting they have always beem refunded.