We've started shopping for airfare for our December visit to the states. For us, price and itinerary are the deciding factors. If we can get a good deal with an airline we have FF miles with, so much the better, but I'm not locked into any airlines based on FF miles alone.
I don't mind a European plane change when flying from Italy to the states, but I HATE HATE HATE! having a European layover on the way back....it just makes the day too long and too painful! For this reason I now look for direct flight flight from FCO to the states, and then a direct flight from our point of arrival into Louisville.
Some airlines stop or reduce their direct flights to Italy in the winter....Delta stops their direct flight out of Cincinnati and NWA doesn't fly direct in the winter either. I've been concentrating on Delta (thru Atlanta) and USAir (thru Philly). Normally we get the best deals on USAir, but this time an intial check showed that Delta had a much better price....$150 LESS per person. I was pretty happy about the savings!
As I went thru the whole process to buy the tickets tho, I discovered that Delta's taxes and fees ended up making the total cost per person $192 MORE EXPENSIVE! I guess Atlanta's airport has higher fees than PHilly, since that was the only variable. Anyway, the bottom line is, make sure you know the total cost of the tickets before you commit! Or maybe check alternate airports to see if you too might be able to save some money.
I always prefer Delta because of the points...but sometimes it just isn't possible. I've been on a search for May o9. I still think there are good fares out there to be found.
I've been watching airfares to London and Guatemala from Los Angeles around Christmas. The fares to Guatemala are higher than I have ever seen them while the fares to London have surprisingly been coming down some.
Those taxes and add on fees at times make the ticket twice the actual price! I always prefer price quotes that just tell me the actual cost of the ticket in total verses the teasing fares before the fees, etc. I really don't see the point of doing the latter. It just pisses people off.
Also, I discovered, quite by accident this past spring, that there is a variation in costs for your flights, depending on which airport in which country you are flying into and out of. How odd...
I booked my granddarling and myself from Toronto to London return. Then, I called back to Air Canada and asked them to change the return flight from Paris rather than from London.
There was a reduction in fare of over $100 because it costs LESS to fly out of Paris than out of London. I had no idea!
I think that it has something to do with the airport's costs for passenger handling upon departure, and Heathrow has a much higher charge than Charles de Gaulle. It's more expensive to leave London!
So, that's also something that no one at the airlines tells you, and it can be a large savings when you have a choice of airports and countries. I'm going to ask this question every single time I book flights in the future.
Anyone else know anything about this extra cost?
The advertised seat sale for that trip was $199 each way. With the additional charges and less the higher charge from London factored into the mix, the total was $900+ for the round-trip tickets. Seat sale? Ok, $900+ was way less than the $1700+ that was the standard fare we were facing, BUT $199 per person? Not really.
“I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things.” ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery Brenda
I think that it has something to do with the airport's costs for passenger handling upon departure, and Heathrow has a much higher charge than Charles de Gaulle. It's more expensive to leave London!
I think it's a national tax rather than the airport's costs: see this thread if it hasn't changed since January 2007. Also, towards the bottom of this page from the Heathrow site:
quote:
Airport tax is ‘Air Passenger Duty’ (APD) and is imposed on passengers by the government. BAA is not involved in either levying or collecting this tax.
Barbara and Art, could it be that Delta does the fuel surcharge as an add-on, and US does not? They may be able to do this on trips originating in Europe.
To be honest Andrew, I really didn't go over the breakdown of all the taxes and fees...I just assumed that Atlanta had higher landing/departure fees that were passed on to the customers. Maybe I should go back and look at each airline's fees, line by line, but in all honesty I don't care what the fees are for, just what the bottom line is!
That's fine; to my knowledge the only U.S. airport fees that can be added onto the quoted base fare are Passenger Facility Charges, which are a maximum of $4.50, so that wouldn't account for such a difference.
If you travel with children, know that often there are special fares for children under 11 (I think that is the age.) Our last three trips to Europe, Casey's fare has been quite a bit less than ours. Be sure to ask about this if the shoe fits.
Pretty soon the airlines can advertise FREE airfare! Taxes and Airport Improvement Fees will be high enough that there won't be any need for a charge for the flight itself. Welcome home, chiaro!
"Thank you for flying Delta Business Express. We hope you enjoyed giving us the business as much as we enjoyed taking you for a ride." ~ Surfer Sam Brenda
Originally posted by BGE: Pretty soon the airlines can advertise FREE airfare!
Ryanair basically does.
The added fees make paying etc for direct flights worth it. Every change you get an airport tax plus whatever else they can invent. I'd rather pay more for a direct flight and pay less taxes.
aAltho I didn't do a line by line breakdown to see what each airline is charging for taxes, surcharges, etc, for the same travel dates the taxes and fees on Delta were $417.92 per person while on USAir they were $86.36....a difference of $331.56! No wonder we all have such a hard time finding the b est airfares!
Today's paper had a small blurb about falling fuel surcharges. I was wondering if this would happen since both oil and gasoline have been dropping in price. It is happening mostly from cities in the mid-west and West coast. Some areas are not showing any change such as trips to London from the Northeast.
Here is more information from Bestfares. It includes a chart showing which cities have the biggest drop - up to 18% drop. It is an interesting read. It might explain some of the differences you are seeing Barb.
