Same flights / taxes are different?
 

Here is another good one that took a bit to figure out:

Booked an int. flight 6 days ago with taxes of $610.20

Today the taxes on the website are 576.80

33.40 less.

I call the Delta desk to explain. She reprices my itinerary and get the same in taxes (even though the class fare has changed).

So where is the magical 33.40? Looking at the itemized listing I see it on my purchased booking as 33.40 US. But it is not on the website booking. So sometimes it pays to use the website (insert sarcastic comment).

The $33.40 is for the US international departure and arrival taxes (it's actually $16.70 each way for a total of $33.40). It should be present on every international ticket. If you were able to buy an international ticket without those taxes, I would say something is fishy.

Would you post the fare calculation before and after the reissue?

Naw, not fishy just another delta.dumb magical moment. But thanks for educating me on the what exactly those taxes are.


zsmith2: Notice the 33.40, the last item, is missing from the webfare.

Purchased ticket
FARE: 1108.00 USD All in T

Total: 610.20
Itemized: 7.50 AY 5.00 XA 7.00 XY 5.50 YC 22.20 FR 5.10 IZ 15.00 QX 496.00 YQ 13.50 XF 33.40 US

Recalc via web site:

Price per passenger: $1,191.40 (USD)
Taxes/Carrier-imposed Fees: $576.80 (USD)


Base Fare (includes U.S. Tax) 1191.40
U.S. September 11th Security Fee 7.50
U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Fee 5.00
U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Fee 7.00
U.S. Custom User Fee 5.50
France Civil Aviation Ta x22.20
France Passenger Service Charge 15.00
Carrier-imposed International Surcharge 496.00
Passenger Facilities Charge 13.50
Other Taxes/Fees 5.10

I'm glad someone else started this thread. I was going to pose a question on these same "Carrier-imposed International Surcharge". I know that the airlines factor a lot of things into this so I expected the surcharge - I just didn't expect the wide fluctuations for the same flight(s).

Example #1:

Economy T fare
8/30 MIA-ATL-DUS return 9/3 DUS-ATL-MIA prices out to 738.90 Breakdown:

Base Fare (includes U.S. Tax) 284.40
U.S. September 11th Security Fee 7.50
U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Fee 5.00
U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Fee 7.00
U.S. Custom User Fee 5.50
Carrier-imposed International Surcharge 336.00
Passenger Facilities Charge 13.50
Other Taxes/Fees 80.00

First (P)/Business (S) fare
**Same exact flights as above - prices out to 2949.90. Breakdown:

Base Fare (includes U.S. Tax) 2025.40
U.S. September 11th Security Fee 7.50
U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Fee 5.00
U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Fee 7.00
U.S. Custom User Fee 5.50
Carrier-imposed International Surcharge 806.00
Passenger Facilities Charge13.50
Other Taxes/Fees 80.00

Everything prices out the same for fees except for the surcharge which is 470.00 more if I buy a business class ticket for the same aircraft/flights.

Example #2:

Same itinerary as above but change departure airport. New itinerary is:

Economy T fare
8/30 DTW-MIA-ATL-DUS
9/3 DUS-ATL-MIA (spending the night in MIA)
9/4 MIA-DTW

This prices out to 1125.18. At first the difference appears to be reasonable since I'm adding two extra domestic segments in. When you look at the breakdown though, the international surcharge jumps an addtional $160.00.

Base Fare (includes U.S. Tax) 496.08
U.S. September 11th Security Fee 10.00
U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Fee 5.00
U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Fee 7.00
U.S. Custom User Fee 5.50
Carrier-imposed International Surcharge 496.00
Passenger Facilities Charge 18.00
U.S. Segment Fees 7.60
Other Taxes/Fees 80.00

Splitting this itinerary into two separate tickets - 8/30 DTW-MIA returning 9/4 and 8/30 MIA-ATL-DUS returning 9/3, the surcharge drops back down to the original 336.00.

Question 1: Does fare class influence the "Carrier-imposed" surcharges? From example #1, it looks like it does since the only difference in the booking is going from economy to business. If this isn't the case, what would account for the large difference in this charge?

Question 2: Does the departure airport for an itinerary that includes an international segment have an impact on the surcharge? From example #2, it looks like it does since the only difference in the itinerary is the addition of a new starting airport (DTW instead of MIA). The strange thing about this is, if I book two separate tickets which would give me the exact same flights, I save $160 on the surcharge.

If anyone can provide some clarification as to what actually determines this surcharge it would be appreciated. Other than the possible reasons I mentioned above, there doesn't seem to be a consitent way to calculate out this lump sum charge.

The base fare includes the federal excise when the website displays it for you. It is called out separately in the taxes section on the ticket receipt. You're still paying it either way.

Class of service definitely impacts the fuel surcharge (YQ). This is understandable, as a passenger in J takes up more floor space, sits in a heavier seat, is permitted a greater amount of luggage, etc. (Fare class itself shouldn't matter most of the time, as I'd expect all LUT fares to incur the same YQ, for instance. However, on short intra-European sectors, you will sometimes see that they have to cut the YQ charged on deeply discounted fares to compete with LCCs since they've already cut the base fare to 0.)

The YQ is generally routing independent and based on the length of the fare component, IME. Thus, you'll pay the same YQ routing SAN-LAX-CDG-LHR as routing SAN-DTW-LHR even though the over-the-water portion (the bit that triggers adding YQ) is much shorter on one. Length of fare component doesn't necessarily control everything, however, as part of it is setting fares that suit the market. The bizarrely-routed DTW-MIA-ATL-DUS is not a good barometer for this, since the routing exceeds the MPM by over 20% but less than 25%, so the fare is inflated by 25% to account for this. I would guess the YQ is also driven up, but I haven't tested it.