mjcasta

Nothing new; but, have never seen it so ridiculous!!

Planning a trip to Paris from EWR and found a very nice $204 round trip fare. Picked the flights and WOW my days a available! Then BAM!! Total fare $385.90.

Now albeit, not bad; but, here is the breakdown:

1 adult = $ 204.00
Taxes and Fees = $ 176.90

Total Price = $ 380.90

The taxes and fees are nearly equal to the fare itself!!! A 90% tax rate!!!

The point is not the fare itself, which is less than what I usually pay once a month to GVA & FCO. The point is simply that when taxes are 90% of the fare - that is insanity!!!

In addition to fuel, this has got to be killing the airlines! Fare hikes are not only a matter of competition; but, in light of the taxes, just how much we are willing to pay.

Do we start throwing tea into the Atlantic???

USA_flyer

Would this be an issue if the price hadn't been broken down into fare and taxes? $380 dollars is still VERY reasonable for a trans atlantic flight.

Need A Beach

Whenever I look at Travelocity, I always tack on an extra $150 for international fares. FYI, AA.com spits out a fare inclusive of all fees and taxes.

yevlesh2

If you look at the fare rules, u will see that out of those taxes, 50 is actually a $25 per transatantic segment surcharge, which goes straight to the airline. It's a new, sneakier way of hiding the fuel surcharges.

pdhenry

I think this is Air France - they pass off a lot of surcharges under the guise of "taxes and fees." If you can get an honest breakdown of what's in there you'll see that some of it is just padding on AF's part.

EDIT: Or it's a combination of AF and CDG.

mjcasta

The $380 total is reasonable per se. I normally pay in the $450 - $600 range for business once a month to GVA and FCO.

This was purely a joy ride and frankly although affordable, the fact that taxes and fees nearly double the fare pretty much just put a damper on the idea. Ended up booking OGG for less.

The fare is via Lufthansa by the way.

spottie

Lufthansa has some of the highest international air taxes- I had thought it had something to do with using Frankfurt airport.

cordelli

I don't care if I pay a dollar in taxes and $299 in fees, or $299 in taxes and a dollar in fees. It's the total price that matters.

Funny, nobody ever says that the taxes on a first class ticket are a very low percentage (since in most cases they are a fixed amount, not a percentage of the ticket)

Analise

There was another tax thread here recently as well. As already said, your total price is STILL terrific. Since it fits your schedule, you should still be happy with $380. From other threads here, CDG has imposed stiff passenger fees.

anonplz

Honestly, I think a lot of people here are missing the OP's point.

To him, the total price isn't the biggest problem. It's the fact that a commodity which prices out competitively @ $200 is made much less attractive and competitive to the consumer after the government weighs in with an almost equal amount of money in taxes! It's outrageous.

Taxes are not static, and have not always been 90% or whatever it is. So there is no reason to believe that the status quo is the way it has to be.

I recently saw a news piece about the TSA spending lavishly on bonuses and parties for top TSA executives - how can anyone paying a 90% tax rate on their air tix feel good about paying such taxes knowing that it does nothing more than finance such waste? Pee's me o, to be perfectly honest.

mjcasta

My point exactly - Thank You anonplz!!!

Regardless of value, we live in a society where a $1.00 gallon of gas and $99.00 transcon fares are expected, almost demanded. Both unrealsitic and neither reflective of inflation and the increased cost of business over the last 20 years.

When a $204.00 ticket becomes $380.90. The result yields artificially low base fares, industry instability and insolvency. If the carrier raises the fare even $20, this yields a $400 fare which in the eyes of many exceeds the threshold of affordability and acceptance which until recently stood at $300 and $200 in the not so distant past.

Simple economics, a product is priced at $9.99 because $10.00 seems like alot more.

For those who argue value, a question. If gas prices stay at $2.15 per gallon; but, the taxes burden increases to $1.00 of the $2.15. Would you simple say, hey $2.15 is a value or would you question why almost 90% of the base cost was a tax??

Airline base fares are consistant with those of the 1980's with the cost pressures of today. Unrealistic and an enormous weight upon the economy as a whole. With the exitsing tax burden, the simple answer to raise fares is equally as unrealistic.

NickB

Part of the problem is that what goes under the name of 'taxes' is (partly) anything but. PSCs, fuel surcharges hide behind that name, so that airlines can advertise lower fares. I just cannot think of any other industry that gets away with those kinds of practices. PSCs, in particular, are not capped in Europe the way they are in the US and can represent a substantial fraction of the so-called 'taxes'. Yet, they are nothing but a service fee paid by the airlines to airports for use of their facilities. Do shops list separately the rent and fees they pay to mall operating companies? no. Do they impose a surcharge listed separately when their transport costs go higher? No. Yet, airlines do that.
Sure, 'taxes' proper are high in Europe and especially so on low fares since they are excise type taxes, of a fixed amount rather than proportional to the cost of the ticket. An argument in favour of those taxes, however, is that they are a way, however imperfect, for airlines to internalise the environmental costs of air transport which are still to a large extent borne by the community as a whole rather than airlines and pax. This is one reason why air transportation taxes are more likely to go even further up than down in the foreseeable future in Europe, given the increasing political pressure for environmental costs to be internalised.

Eastbay1K

Rental cars???

djjaguar64

That's not a ridiculous fare come to YYZ and fly from YYZ to CDG for US$700, now stop complaining and get on the damn plane.

NickB

Yes, you're right. The other exception.