chapinpirulin

As FT has always been a knowledgeable source of information, I hope the same holds true this time.

It has been discussed on several threads that one may recover the taxes of a flight, which one canceled or did not use. I am now in a situation, where that happens but the airline says that there is no such thing (not LH, but I am always reading/contributing to this forum).

So what is the legal ground for getting the taxes back? If anybody good cite European law, I would greatly appreciate this.

Thanks a lot in advance
chapin_pirulin

andre1970

I am afraid that there is no specific EU law (not one I am aware of) under which airlines are required to refund various taxes and charges. Nor is there any law (AFAIK) that prevents them from charging an admin. fee for processing the refund.
I'll be happy to be proven wrong.
Cheers
A.

muc_flyer

I have asked to reclaim tax as well lately.

First time it was for a return flight and this was done without any problems.

Then I tried the same for flights where I did not use one lag of the return ticket. The response was surprising for me: if the bottom line fare for the remaining one way would be in excess of the return flight, then it is impossible to reclaim tax (and original comment of LH: "you should be thankful if we do not charge you the difference between return and one way").

Therefor, I would mostly appreciate to get any view by any more experienced flyers.

rotwein

no problem, to get taxes back, if you book on OS site (Airmanager). As I book cheap flights long in advance it happens on a regular basis that I am not able to use the complete ticket or the return flight.

Once I had to claim taxes for a flight booked on LH site and could use only the outboung segment. I got 2 answers, first they said no you are lucky that we don't charge a one way ticket, second (2 days later), yes of course we refund the taxes for the inbout segment.

oliver2002

I use the Rudi method: call up and say you can't use the return leg about 24h before departure because your plans changed. Ask if they can rebook. If the say no, then ask if you can atleast get a refund for the unused taxes.

Works all the time for me.

jarino

the legal ground is that airline is only acting as a trustee regarding the taxes and state imposed charges. Hence demanding a refund for funds held in trust is not a really a question.

There was a court case against ryanair in germany regarding this question as ryanair refused to refund the taxes. there was no decision as ryanair acknowledged the claim because the court made clear that ryanair's position was without reasonable chance.

with even ryanair now refunding taxes - what other airline may still refuse?

however, a different question is whether airlines may deduct an administration fee from the tax refund. ryanair and easyjet charge about 20-25 EUR, which may offset the entire refund claim.

ulev

Was anbody ever successful with getting the refund at a ticket counter? So far, they always turned me down. With etix I was always successful after calling the SEN/HON line.

chapinpirulin

LaudaAir Italia. And the worst is, that they cannot even speak English. But thanks for the tips. Let's see what happens.

djohannw

I think they do that because they can currently get away with it. They of course have the right to charge such a fee, but it has to be reasonable. Something like the 5€ that Germanwings now charges would seem so, anything above that is just Highway-robbery and will be voided in court should one of the mentioned airline go there. They won't go that route however and just repay the fees in full if you convince them that you will take them to court if they don't - they just don't want a court decision about this as this will encourage even more people to claim their taxes back.

Greetings - Dirk

andre1970

Take them to court under which (non-existent) law, Dirk?

As I said before,

Rest assured that they are very well aware of the inexistence of a law ruling those cases. This is the reason why they charge such high taxes etc in the first place. They can do whatever they want later...

Complaining and praying is indeed an option, however, threatening to take them to the court in the absence of ...a law is an empty threat.

House

There is no EU law, but there are national laws. Unfortunately each country wil be different:

1. When you buy a ticket you have a contract with the airline. If you cancel the contract the FARE element of what you pay is regulated by the contract (i.e. a non refundable fare is not refunded).

2. The taxes consist of charges (payable to airports, immigration authorities etc) and taxes (payable to governments). The taxes are separated out so that the authorities can clearly check that their taxes have been paid, and because the taxes are only payable if the passenger actualy travels. Taxes on airfares are not like sales tax/TVA/MWS/VAT/GST etc. For sales taxes, the tax is paid to the government when you make the purchase. For airport taxes and charges, no money is owed until you check-in and start passing through the airport.

3. As other have pointed out, the airline is likely to be acting as a guardian or trustee. This is a matter of general commercial/contract law and NOT the subject of a specific airline/air travel law. They are only looking after the taxes element of the fare and, as the Ryanair case showed in Germany, they have to give it back. Of course they can charge an admin fee, but as others have said consumer laws in most countries prevent "unreasonable" charges being levied - the airline would need to be able to show that the charge was proportionate to the cost to them in admin time, bank charges etc.

3. Things become very uncertain with the fuel surcharge. This is not a tax or an airport charge, but it is also NOT part of the fare. Bit of a messs from a legal perspective, though I would still argue that, if it is there to cover fuel costs and you are no longer going to cause the airline to incur those costs then there is no issue.

Practically, the problem is that (a) this is all very complicated (and the airlines know it) and (b) the value of taxes involved does not justify the expense of legal advice and the like (indeed in some countries the amount may be too small to claim through the courts).

You've also chosen one of the more difficult countries in the EU for this kind of thing. Lauda will not concede on "customer service" grounds (i.e. keeping you happy) but will bluntly refuse to do anything unless it looks like you are doing something "official". A letter from an Italian lawyer might help.

Alternatively, consumer laws in most EU countries state that a consumer can bring actions in the country where they live (if this is where they were when they concluded the contract). It MAY be possible, depending on the terms and conditions of the website or agency used to buy the fare, to bring an action in Belgium. A letter from a Belgian lawyer threatening to being an action in Belgium might help. Belgian law is one of the more consumer-friendly in the EU.

To be honest, unless the amount is large and/or you are happy to spend some money on a point of principle, then I would take it no further. I would certainly not get confrontational without more specific legal advice.

House

You do not need a specific law in order to bring a case. There are general commercial and contract laws (as well as consumer laws) that are all the original poster would need.

andre1970

Indeed, you do not need a specific law in order to bring a case! I'm not sure about your chances to win a case though...

andre1970

Good advice. But that's precisely the meaning of an empty threat I wrote about, a threat that most probably would not be carried out by a reasonable / sensible person without (the expectation of) some benefit.

And yes, you don't need a specific law to bring a case but it would substantially increase your chances of winning, but most importantly, it would zero out your litigation costs since typically, these cases would be taken to arbitration. That would make your threat credible. Making it worthwhile to claim even the $50 or $100 from an airline is the essence of a consumer-friendly law. There must be a reason why specific laws exist, right?

Now, if it is a matter of principle, the best thing I could do is to just stop flying them. I bet you I can find more entertaining ways to burn my money than going after an airline "on a principle".

LonLH

I changed the routing of a ticket a couple of days ago at LHR which avoided transit through in FRA. LH gave me a MCO for the taxes at FRA without me asking for anything, and another MCO for the difference in fares.
And whenever I have booked and not used tickets with expedia etc., I have been able to get a full refund of taxes even if the fare was non-refundable.
The taxes are for using the airport facilities (and other taxes for the privilege of flying) collected by the airline and paid to the authorities- so if you do not use them, the question of paying the taxes do not arise and you are entitled to get them back