WanderLustMan

Hey all, I've been having a heck of a time trying to book my RTW ex-LHR in August. I managed to get the itinerary set for a YSTAR1 and it's ready to go.

I live in US and want to book the ticket with the LHR based price of GBP$1,409.

The Austrian airlines representative quoted me a total US$3,610.46 per ticket which is allegedly made up of:

base fare = GBP1409 or ~$2,500 USD
TAXES = $1,100!!!!!!
Total = $3,600

could that possibly be true? Could there be that many taxes and service charges or is she just lying to me since I'm buying hte ticket from the US?


Does anyone have a good/experienced TA in Toronto that would be able to book an RTW for me with ex-LHR prices?

Thanks for your help, trying to book an extended honeymoon.

Al B

Pending your routing and choice of carrier, then it is getting quite feasible that there could be 1K in taxes. Have seen several lately that are way up there in the 7-8 hundred AUD range.
Most of it is YQ tax - or fuel surcharges though. If you can get a breakdown of taxes from OS and post your routing, we'd be able to see if it is a correct level or not.

WanderLustMan

I ended up booking through Austrian despite the high taxes. The alternative was an ex-JFK flight for almost $1000 more including taxes. I found a cheap one-way on VS to london so I'll end up saving $600 on the ticket which is not bad for my first RTW I think.

skywalkerLAX

Sounds realistic when you see that even my LH award ticket FRA-SYD was 287,- EUR only TAX !

It's no fun anymore and depending on your route you could end up close to this price with a 3 Region TIX like LAX-FRA-SIN-LAX.
:-:

Kiwi Flyer

Without seeing your routing it is hard to tell if it is reasonable. But yes my past couple of RTWs have around US$800 in "taxes" - a significant proportion of this are fuel surcharges.

jacob_m

It all depends on your routing and the number of segments you have.
Obviously the more segments you have the more airport taxes you have to pay, so you can minimise the taxes by using as many direct flights as possible and avoid short hops and unnecessary transfers.

I recently booked a RTW ticket as well and I also had to pay a considerable amount ot taxes, I think it was roughly the same as you.
On the other hand I have quite a few segments so I was prepared to see some hefty taxes, but I never expected it to be that much.

I was also going to say that some airports have higher taxes in you travel in C or F (LHR is one example), but that shouldn't affect you.

WanderLustMan

here's the routing for those that are interested to see if the taxes seem reasonable

LHR-VIE-SPU-overland-ATH-VIE-DXB-SIN-PER-AKL-SYD-AKL-NAN-LAX-SFO-LHR

Kiwi Flyer

I dont have the tables on hand but IIRC LHR, VIE, SYD all have expensive taxes. Then a lot of flights on OS (Austrian), SQ (Singapore) and NZ (Air New Zealand) which all have high fuel surcharges.

Found the tables. This is the true taxes as at April (excludes fuel surcharges).

LHR GBP5 Air Passenger Duty (GB), GBP9.30 Passenger Service Charge (UB)

VIE (each time) EUR8 Security Tax (AT), EUR7.29 Passenger Service Charge (ZY) for VIE-SPU but EUR12.80 for VIE-DXB.

ATH EUR12 Airport Development Tax (GR), EUR11.20 Passenger Terminal Facilities Charge (WP), EUR3.20 Security Charge (WQ)

DXB AED30 Passenger Service Charge (AE)

SIN SGD21 Passenger Service Charge (SG)

PER AUD38 Passenger Movement Charge (AU), AUD7.57 Safety and Security Charge (WG), AUD11.10 Passenger Services Charge (WY) levied on both arrival and departure

SYD AUD38 Passenger Movement Charge (AU), AUD7.57 Safety and Security Charge (WG), AUD3.40 Noise Levy Tax (QK), AUD21.09 Passenger Services Charge (WY) levied on both arrival and departure

AKL (each time) NZD9.31 Passenger Security Charge (IA). Note NZD25 departure tax is paid at airport (doesn't apply if less than 24 hours in NZ).

NAN FJD5 Airport Security Charge (EZ), FJD20 Airport Departure Tax (EY), FJD5 Airport Development Charge (FA)

LAX USD14.50 International Transport Tax (US), USD3.30 Flight Segment Tax (ZP), USD4.95 Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service User Fee (XA), USD5.50 Customs User Fee (YC), USD7.00 INS Inspection Fee (XY), USD2.50 Passenger Civil Aviation Security Service Fee (AY), USD4.50 Passenger Facility Charge (XF)

SFO USD14.50 International Transport Tax (US), USD2.50 Passenger Civil Aviation Security Service Fee (AY), USD4.50 Passenger Facility Charge (XF)

Note some of these taxes do not apply to transits (but some do apply to both transits and stopovers).

WanderLustMan

ah, i had no idea about different fuel surcharges for different airlines. Is there a site that would show the relative levels for each? I guess I really have no other easy way to fly into Croatia on *A....so Austrian it is. It's the price for going where I want to go.

Jaimito Cartero

I'd try to start your RTW in a different country or carrier. I paid $250 in taxes for a 12 country, 6 continent reward in Biz last year.

WanderLustMan

i have unfortunately already purchased the ticket. Don't see any other place to start the trip from that is not out of the way or easy to get to with a one-way ticket.

Kiwi Flyer

Looks like the real taxes are around USD$400 (very rough calc - I didn't bother checking currency conversions). This is as at April so may have increased since then.

The airline websites should have somewhere the fuel surcharges they charge.

henry999

You got this ticketed as a YRWSTAR1? It looks like 29712 miles on the GCM! I would say 'Count your blessings, and don't moan about taxes...'

cheers,

Henry

AJLondon

I recently paid over €900 for the taxes on my last CRWSTAR2.

Marquis790

On my last RTW, I had just shy of $600 taxes. While some airlines and airports were more expensive than others (for instance, Malaysia is notorious in SE Aisa for high airport taxes), I figured it was between $20-30 USD for each airport I had to transit through (not just stopover). If anyone is interested, I can dig out the tix and break down an exact itinerary, but it was on *Alliance.