Interesting thread.
My question is, though, the following.
With 'certain' LoCo's (not sure if all but a fair bet) if you make a booking and then for any reason cancel this, you cannot get a 'refund'. All well and good. However, what happens to the tax????
If a customer pays a LoCo for a flight, they will hold onto the tax until the flight is carried out, whence they pay the tax people ie when the 'service' has been provided. If the flight is not utilised, the tax is not 'incurred' therefore it is not paid to the authorities. This then falls into the 'pot' of the airline UNLESS it is claimed back, and nowhere is it mentioned that customers can actually get this back (minus the '99p' fare of course!!!!).
With 'no shows' running in the high single digit % points, this must be a very substantial volume of money being held by the companies!
Therefore the question....'Should the public not be made aware of this practice?'
Thoughts and comments welcomed.
BD