£390 for a £85 ticket

[Carnage Matey!]

radeng - think about how many airlines you can fly LHR-SYD with on any given day versus how many people actually want to fly LHR-SYD on that day. Given that it's better to make some money than no money the airlines are slashing prices just to bring in cash. Take a look at the seat sales that are going on. BA are offering half price tickets just to get people to fly, Qantas are doing similar. Does that look like the action of a company thats raking it in?

[VAFFPAX]

From some information given to me by someone recently, BA is suffering, but not as badly as other airlines. So yes, getting more bums in seats helps a little to alleviate the problems.

S.

[point8six]

The fare (internet) drops by £106 if you fly late Nov. Not much profit there!

[Globaliser]

Originally Posted by FarWest

ITA Software gives this breakdown

Brilliant idea.

The OP's £390 fare (if it was on BA) would thus be broken down as:-

Fare (A1): BA LONORL OXRCUK9 fare (rules) £42.50
Fare (A2): BA ORLLON OXRCUK9 fare (rules) £42.50
Tax: USDA APHIS Fee $5.00
Tax: US Immigration Fee $7.00
Tax: US Customs Fee $5.50
Tax: United Kingdom Air Passengers Duty £40.00
Tax: United Kingdom Passenger Service Charge £10.80
Tax: US International Arrival Tax $15.40
Tax: BA YQ surcharge £223.00
Tax: US International Departure Tax $15.40
Tax: US September 11th Security Fee $2.50
Tax: US Passenger Facility Charge $4.50

Total for 1 adult passenger: £390.30

The £223 for "YQ surcharge" is fuel surcharge plus insurance surcharge, broken down as in my previous post.

Underlined items definitely going directly into BA's pocket, italicised item definitely going directly into the Government's coffers.

[radeng]

Wirh F and C full, they must have mede a profit. Likewise the LGW - VCE yesterday - economy completely full, 29 seats out of 30 in club full.

Interestingly, the FF miles tickets used for going to SYD were booked a long time ago and there wasn't an extra fuel surcharge added when fuel went up.

[Globaliser]

Originally Posted by radeng

Interestingly, the FF miles tickets used for going to SYD were booked a long time ago and there wasn't an extra fuel surcharge added when fuel went up.

That's the way it usually is. You pay whatever the surcharge is on the day of ticketing. If the fuel surcharge goes up afterwards, you don't pay the extra. If the fuel surcharge goes down afterwards, you don't get a refund. Such is life.

In a time of likely falling fuel surcharges like now, it does add a certain piquancy to timing decisions.