GUC Tax Collection
 

I just had enough with Delta!! Diamond Medallion has the highest level of revenue requirement compare to UA and AA. DL gets you 4 GUCs where as UA gives 6 GUCs. The 4 GUC is incredibly hard to use. I've flown a lot of international flights and always saw D1 seats given to employees and non-rev customers and GUC gets very low priority.

Lucky me, so I thought, I got cleared for HKG->SEA several weeks ago before I left the US - everything looked good. 24-hr check-in alert received, so I went to check-in and system told me I don't have a ticket. After an hour of talking to the night-time Medallion desk agent, the only reason they can concoct up is I didn't pay an upgrade tax. Dumbfounded, I looked through all the terms and conditions, and there is not a single language about Medallion upgrade is subject to additional tax. I challenged the clearly inexperienced night agent to explain the tax. What they struggled to come up with is the G3 tax, 3 runway construction tax at HKG of $2 and some odd cents, the difference between an economy seat and first/business class seat. I never received any email about the unpaid tax or any indication of something is wrong. I researched this on the HK side and government-published directive indicate there is a 3RS Airport Construction Fee in effective since 8/1/2016 that shows a 180HKD tax for first/business and 160HKD tax for economy. The directive also had FAQs including a condition that if a passenger is ticketed in economy and received upgrade to first/business class, the additional collection of the difference is not necessary. This make sense - consider if an airline oversold in economy and has the op-up a passenger, would you go collect the additional tax while the passenger is at the gate or even possibly already on the plane? No!

I am blown away that Delta would screw its most loyal customers with this nonsense. No terms and conditions, no email, no system messages told me I had to pay this tax. No one would argue about the $2 tax even if it needs to be collected, but the way Delta would hold hostage a passenger's international ticket for this backend issue is just disgusting...and these night time inexperienced agents just adds insult to the injury. When I agreed to pay the tax (who wouldn't) just to get my ticket back, they freakin' didn't have a way to process payment!!!

During this ordeal, I got lectured by a night-time agent, sounded like in her 20s but with a heavy accent, that it should check my emails for these taxes. Genius, I did, no such email was received. I asked her to tell what time the system sent it, she couldn't - just make up crap as she go and that I should know of all the airport taxes of every destination I go to. It doesn't seem to occur to her, that those who are constantly flying live a pretty busy and likely stressful life - who has time for this non-sense... What passenger in their right mind, checks for airport and government taxes - we trust the airlines would calculate the taxes accurately. I have never been more serious about leaving Delta for UA or AA...

"Any tax liability or government-imposed fees are the responsibility of the user. For certain destinations, additional taxes may apply for travel in Business Class."

HK government does not collect tax difference for Op Up for other non-paid upgrades. They go by ticketed manifest... Those agents just made up these rules and I found the document to contradict them.

How does HKG distinguish between the different types of upgrades (including payment with non-monetary instruments) with regards to the tax?

For LHR and CDG, they don’t impose the tax on operational upgrades. But they do on all other passengers in business class - paid, mileage upgrade, GUC upgrade, etc.

What probably actually happened is that your ticket wasn’t properly reissued. Frighteningly common with GUCs; when using them, always make sure you have a ticket receipt reflecting the right class of service a few days before the flight.

Extra collections of fees are standard for upgrade certificates, although I don’t recall being asked to pay anything extra on past trips to HKG using GUCs (but may not have bothered remembering if it was HK$30 :))

This. The ticket was never reissued properly when the GUC cleared.

For reference, I've had a GUC wait listed ex-LHR clear in advance. When I got the email with the reissued ticket there was an addition charge on my Amex for the additional taxes. There wasn't any other notification from Delta.

This is certainly an issue of the reissue.
The taxes usually appear on my card on file with no further action needed on my part.
I imagine if you had gotten most agents, they would have just said, "oh, I see your ticket wasn't sent for reissue, let me call and have it manually reissued... there will be a tax of a couple of dollars, how do you want to pay that?" The agent muddied the waters by implying the taxes were the issue.

It appears that either the agent said more than he needed to, that he was confused or that OP is confused as to what was said, or all of the above.

Ticket reissue has nothing to do with the additional taxes due. If there is no CC on file, there would have been an add/collect at the airport or the agent would have asked for payment at the time.

But, this situation is vastly different from OpUp's where the carrier places a passenger in a higher class of service for the operational convenience of the carrier. In this instance, the passenger sought to upgrade and supported payment of the upgrade with a GUC.

Same issue arises in the UK with the APD. OPUP means no premium APD, but paid UG, including GUC, does.

I have found that when an agent is telling you something that you are certain is wrong just say thank you then hang up and call back to talk to a different agent. I have done this many times and the outcome is what it should be.

Recently got a confirmed upgrade to Upper Class on VS to LHR and didn’t have to pay any additional taxes. Is it customary for VS to eat the taxes on upgrades via a GUC?

What would lead you to believe that VS "ate" any taxes in this instance?

The LHR taxes (Air Passenger Duty) are only for flights ex-LHR in the premium cabin. Your flight to LHR wouldn't be subject to the higher tax.

Extra taxes apply for business class departures leaving the UK, France, and Ghana. The UK also charges the tax for Premium Economy and Delta Comfort+.

Interesting - could a currency fluctuation also explain the discrepancy?

As others have said, the taxes are only assessed on flights departing the UK (and, even then, are waived if you originate somewhere else and spend less than 24 hours on the ground in the UK on the same ticket).

In addition to that, the UK charges the same exact "sin tax" on premium economy tickets that they do on business class; if you're using miles or certificates to upgrade from PE to Upper Class, no additional taxes would be required because you already paid them as part of your base ticket.