Assistance with "Taxes etc"
 

I've just made a change to a 241 booking and am not sure that I've been charged the correct amount of "Taxes etc".

The original award flights for 2 were booked 2-3 months ago for travel in June, as follows;-

GLA-LGW (business) overnight
LGW - TPA (PE)
TPA-LGW (PE)
LGW-GLA (business)

Original "Taxes etc" £411.

This morning I noticed that business class had opened up from MCO-LGW so I changed the third sector accordingly. No other sector was affected. Additional "Taxes etc" of £245 per person charged.

I've checked the BA website and the combined "Taxes etc" (£656) is approximately the same as those due on business class flights throughout. Seems strange since LGW-TPA is in PE. I was expecting an additional £250 or so in total (a mix between the PE and the J return costs).

When we originally booked I got the 2 domestic business class sectors at the same "Taxes etc" rate as economy flights. I am just wondering if the domestic GLA-LGW in business has come back to bite me on the bum, when I changed the booking. The agent confirmed that the whole itinerary had been re-priced so it doesn't seem to be a calculation error.

Any thoughts welcome.

ITA Matrix shows there's an additional £200 of Carrier-imposed surcharge (YQ) when you move from PE to Business. £35 change fee gets us to £235, I can't account for the other £10.

Thanks^ The £35 change fee was actually on top of the additional £245.

I've seen a system 'error' a couple of times, when agents do a zero fare quote.

It essentially takes the full quote of a cash ticket on the same route, but in some cases (like this one, maybe) the cheapest cash ticket would be bumping up LGW-TPA to J. The fare is then deducted and you're left with the taxes.

This might be what is happening here. Try pricing up a full J GLA-TPA and check what the tax amount is?

To be absolutely clear - as I think you know already - there is nothing 'taxes' about this whatsoever. It's a pure BA charge, i.e. fare.

Thanks folks👍 The full J return taxes etc is what we have now been charged, with the additional £245 charged. Yes, I'm aware that the only "tax" in the amount charged is APD.
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I think that I will query this £245.

The error is the use of the term "etc". There are taxes and then there are fees imposed by BA. The two are wholly unrelated.

Both should be broken down on your old and new e-ticket receipts.

Thanks^ I hadn't seen a full breakdown on the eticket receipt before - indeed it was only visible when I clicked on view full message. I haven't yet received the new eticket receipt. Once received I agree that I will be in a much better position to know what's what.

Don't hold your breath thinking there will be a full tax breakdown on the new e-ticket receipt, unfortunately!

I have now been able to see the e-ticket receipt in the BA app. A small correction shows the total surcharges;-
Initial booking - £417.05 per person
Revised booking - £662.51 per person

Leaving aside minor differences in some fees etc, the major change is;-

Initial booking - YQ was £155 per person
Revised booking - this shows Carrier Imposed Charge - £400 per person (I believe that this is YQ?)

This seems an inordinate hike given I've only changed 1 TATL sector from PE to J. I cannot find the actual YQ rates. Does anyone have access to these, to allow me to check?

The US recently increased their charges for Business Class seats and above - this is mentioned a lot on Virgin Atlantic twitter page too. Don't know if that is related to your query I suspect it is.

Yes that was my original thought when I was told of the increased charges - that the return sectors only had been repriced, rather than the whole itinerary.

And BA did the same thing.

And it is a decision of the airlines and nothing to do with the US Government. Carrier Surcharge / Internation Surcharge or whatever they call it is absolutely NOT a tax

Ah ha! I see what's happened.

If you try and book that leg in PE right now it's showing £200 YQ, Business is £400 YQ. So when I told you that there was an additional £200 YQ to go from PE to business that was based on an incorrect assumption you had already paid £200 which is the current rate for PE not a historical £155 that you seem to have booked under. If you had only paid £155 then £245 that you have been quoted is right (400 - 155 = 245).