SwissRef
26th Apr 2011, 15:27
Hi all,
Trying to cancel a flight with Easyjet (due to medical reasons).
It's a return flight for 1 person Geneva to Naples. Only after asking, did they say they could refund the taxes, and then said they were only CHF2.58
None of the invoices we have break down the initial fare, but surely the taxes for a return flight to Naples from Geneva should have taxes of more than this?
To add insult to injury - they then charge 48CHF to send a letter stating the flight has been canceled, so we can claim it from the insurance. :*
Info much appreciated.
Don't know the taxes GVA-NAP but the tax on BA GVA-LON is about £15.
The taxes are refundable but the airlines usually charge a fee, very often the fee is the same as the taxes.
In your case I would suggest they have deducted their handling fee from the taxes leaving you a paltry sum.
Interesting question.
I've just had a look through my 'confirmations' from Squeezy over the years and I can't find one that shows a breakdown - only the total billed to my credit card.
Although VAT isn't involved here isn't their a rule requiring them to show the complete breakdown - or is that only on their website?
I've got another question re Squeezy and VAT, but I'll start another thread because that involves on-board sales. (Moderators - if you want to put these together, that's OK with me)
Capot
26th Apr 2011, 17:13
And, as well as that scam, you may have come across the original scam which is that the airlines pass on costs, such as certain handling charges, as "taxes" when they are nothing of the sort.
Until the late '80s, perhaps early 90's, all these costs were simply included in the fare. One such cost was the "Passenger Load Supplement" charged by airports so that airlines paid a charge for airport use that varied directly with the number uplifted, alongside the landing charge for the aircraft type. This started in the '50s in UK, and encouraged many a start-up to develop its new regional routes as it was meant to.
Then one day an airline simply started calling the PLS a "Tax", and actually announced it as a new and dreadful imposition by the airports. They simply then added it to the fare that until then had included it, without any change in the fare. Others immediately copied this brilliant scheme, and overnight fares rose by around 20% because of this "new" "tax".
Encouraged by getting away with that piece of robbery, they then started to add other costs, hitherto included in the fare, and calling them "taxes" as well. And so the whole ridiculous, stupid scheme grew in which the fare got lower and lower and the "taxes" got higher and higher as costs were transferred from fares to "taxes".
It's the insult to our intelligence that gets to me. Anyone with half a brain cell knows that the absurd headline fare is not going to be the cost of the trip. But wading through the crap on most airlines' websites to get to the truth is very, very annoying. Some are better than others; BA (who were the first to think of changing PLS to "tax") are good in this respect.
For the record, the only real "tax" is the Air Passenger Duty. All the others are simply charges to the airline from its suppliers, or, in the case of some airlines, charges they have simply dreamed up to add to the fare as another "tax".
And that's why you won't get "taxes" refunded.