xONEx and UK APD
 

Does anyone know any mechanism whatsoever by which a xONEx ticket can be linked to another air ticket, with the goal of getting the onerous UK APD (Air Passenger Duty) waived/refunded?

For example, we're currently scheduled to travel GRU - LHR on BA as part of a DONE5, and wish to purchase an additional international ticket ex-LHR for the same day as the arrival, and wonder whether there is any mechanism whereby the 2nd ticket can be sold without the APD (GBP 90 per passenger). I spoke with BA reservations in London and they asserted complete ignorance about any possible mechanism, despite both flights being revenue tickets on BA.

Given all the Herculean efforts that individuals and corporations exert to avoid taxes generally, and as the UK APD rises into the stratosphere, it seems unfathomable to me that there would be no mechanism at all that transfer passengers can request to avoid taxes that were not intended to be applied to them. Is there in fact a mechanism to achieve this goal?

Thanks in advance!

In short, if you buy 2 separate tickets , then you will be liable to pay APD; since these will be 2 unrelated tickets, APD applies

You need to have a look at http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsP...00505#P89_5226

In section 4.4 it shows the required criteria for the flights to be classified as connecting for APD purposes

Dave

Thanks for adding the exact quotation to the thread....and it is precisely section 4.4.b that I'm inquiring about.

What exactly is the mechanism that reservation offices should be using to ensure that the two tickets "each refers to the other and states that they are to be read in conjunction."

For GBP 90 per passenger (~$300), it's worth finding out how this "conjunction" can be created.

Thanks!

The 2 separate tickets xx-UK and then UK-yy are 2 completely unrelated and sold separately and so are not conjoined at all. You cannot create the conjunction

if you had gone to airline and purchased a ticket xx-yy , then it may have been made up of 2 fares to create the single itinerary but would been joined into a single ticketed itinerary and so would have been eligable to avoid it

There can be fares that can only be sold in conjunction with a certain type of ticket ( e.g. in Australia the OZPASS fares require that the be sold in conjunction with an international inbound ticket )

In your case, you just have 2 unrelated bookings; consider.. if they allowed this situation for avoiding APD somceone could purchase a refundable xxx-lhr and lhr-yyy and then , after purchasing lhr-yyy then cancel xxx-lhr and avoid the tax. If LHR-yyy is sold in conjunction ticket then it should not be able to exist in isolation of the xxx-LHR

Dave

There are reports on FT of travellers succeeding in get the APD waived in similar circumstances. It appear to require some effort but seems possible.

See here (and the threads/posts linked therein):

OK, apparently it's been done, but how do you get a refund if you've already paid the tax? Or was the APD only waived prior to ticketing the flight to LON (with proof of onward same-day connection)?

The wording and clarification on the HMRC does seem to be more precise than it used to be ; I cannot see from the current wording how there would be any ambiguity and that any agent manually overriding the tax claim is wrong

As it happens, it wouldn't really bother the HMRC since the liability for the tax is on the airline not the passenger anyway :) ... the airlines arn't obligated to pass it to passengers iirc

Dave

I presume from what has been said that a separately ticketed Oneworld Visit Europe ticket which must be cross-referenced to your ticket taking you to Europe should be exempt from the APD if the arrival in LHR occurs less than 24 hours prior to the departure on the 2nd ticket.

While I don't have any experience with this situation, I also presume that you would have to go to hell and back in your attempts to get the APD waived on the 2nd ticket.

I can't believe that I'm the only person who currently routinely transits the UK with arrivals and departures on separate tickets that will begin thinking twice and three times about the economic sanity of such behavior.

For passengers transferring between flights booked separately, I frankly find it very, very odd that APD at current elevated levels (GBP 90- 110 for long-haul flights) hasn't become like all other taxes i.e. something to be avoided at all costs.

Common sense dictates that either a practical workaround will be found (and spread via bulletin boards like this one). or that such transfer passenger traffic will soon fall sharply off.

Does anyone know whether one of the goals of the APD was to reduce the attractiveness of the UK as a transit point between airlines?

I would suggest (without any basis for my suggestion) that the number of people in this circumstance (transiting LHR for less than 24 hours in transit and on different tickets) is very small and the number who would be savvy enough to realise that their ticket includes this APD even smaller). If there was an easy way of allowing non-linked tickets to get an exemption then a way to abuse the practical workaround would probably be found and spread via bulletin boards like this one -something along the lines of buying a refundable ticket in order to access an airport lounge and then cancelling the ticket once you have use/abused the facility

I plan to avoid the UK and go to France instead on my next trip due to the increase in APD.

It's simply far easier to avoid booking journeys originating in the UK. In my circumstance (using Qantas more often than not) it entails judicious use of continental departures that transit LHR. We have done this for our booked xONEx's since 2005.

The reality is the cost benefit in avoiding APD is already there.

I can now confirm that I was successful in getting a full refund of paid APD as the two tickets I had created a transit, not a stopover. One ticket was a DONE4, the other a *A ticket to/from London.

Both tickets were purchased through the same TA, shown on the same itinerary and the PNRs were linked.

Can you please describe the "full refund" method? Did your TA apply for it or did you, and how long did it take to obtain?

The TA would need to set up the tickets as "Conjunction Tickets". This is specified in the legislation.

See post #5 of this very thread and and the threads/posts/URL linked therein.