Ridiculous taxes/fees

[Linflas]

My 90 year old mother in law is in the hospital in Montreal so my wife has to fly up there as she can't find out anything about what is going on with her from here. I knew up front the airfare would be ridiculous but I didn't expect that $124.00 of it would be taxes and fees!
U.S. Customs User Fee: 5.50
U.S. Immigration User Fee: 7.00
U.S. APHIS User Fee: 5.00
U.S. Federal Transportation Tax: 50.33
U.S. Flight Segment Tax: 7.60
September 11th Security Fee: 2.50
Canadian Security Charge: 12.80
Canada Airport Improvement Fee: 25.10
Canada Goods and Services Tax: 1.30
Canada - Quebec Sales Tax: 2.50
U.S. Passenger Facility Charge: 4.50

On top of that is another $92.00 in taxes and fees for the rental car which is about 82% of the $113.00 rental of the car itself.

Good Grief!

 

[bigrash]

Tell me about it. Way too many airline fees. Specially if you fly between countries.

 

[Farmer]

Cheapest way into Canada is by car. Fly to Boston, rent car, drive from there.

 

[rivan]

All those gate agents, security and customs people should work for free, or at least make less than a living wage. Runways and facilities should be donated to the cities involved for free and maintained by volunteers.

/half-sarcasm

But yeah, I'm with you. Shit's crazy expensive. It's worse than my phone bill.

 

[NutBucket]

Cheapest way into Canada is by car. Fly to Boston, rent car, drive from there.

This. The only extra cost you'll incur is some extra insurance for the rental car.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Fly to Buffalo. Drive to Montreal

 

[Wonderful Pork]

I looked into an international flight - the fuel surcharge (or just international surcharge as the airlines call it) was equal to the cost of the seat - both were $500! Ridiculous!

I understand the need to charge extra because of rising or volatile fuel prices however they are profiting heavily on these surcharges. If they want prices to go up, make them part of the ticket price, not a surcharge, I'd be fine with that (capitalism and all)

 

[jagec]

I understand the need to charge extra because of rising or volatile fuel prices however they are profiting heavily on these surcharges. If they want prices to go up, make them part of the ticket price, not a surcharge, I'd be fine with that (capitalism and all)

That's what I never understood about these things. People HATE seeing bills with tons of broken-down surcharges. It's why everyone hates Ticketmaster so much...it's one thing to pay $40 for a ticket, it's another to pay $15 and then 53 different fees on top of it that add up to $25. It may be the same total amount either way, but in the second case you feel like you're getting screwed.

So, why on earth are airlines doing it, if customers hate it so much?

 

[LTC8K6]

That's what I never understood about these things. People HATE seeing bills with tons of broken-down surcharges. It's why everyone hates Ticketmaster so much...it's one thing to pay $40 for a ticket, it's another to pay $15 and then 53 different fees on top of it that add up to $25. It may be the same total amount either way, but in the second case you feel like you're getting screwed.

So, why on earth are airlines doing it, if customers hate it so much?

I'll guess that the law says all the fees have to be spelled out, like on a phone bill.

 

[purbeast0]

That's what I never understood about these things. People HATE seeing bills with tons of broken-down surcharges. It's why everyone hates Ticketmaster so much...it's one thing to pay $40 for a ticket, it's another to pay $15 and then 53 different fees on top of it that add up to $25. It may be the same total amount either way, but in the second case you feel like you're getting screwed.

So, why on earth are airlines doing it, if customers hate it so much?

ive never seen this when buying tickets, i just see the final price.

the most expensive flight i bought was to hawaii probably $800/ticket or so. don't know because it was part of a package for my wife and i and was $4500 for 11 nights for flight + hotel + rental car.

usually flights that i've gotten to the carribean or central/south america places like mexico, aruba, or barbados are between $400 - $500 which is fine to me. hell i flew to bahamas round trip for like $225. i thought that was cheap as hell.

 

[PokerGuy]

So, why on earth are airlines doing it, if customers hate it so much?

Because by using all these nickel and dime fees, they can hit you with them while still showing up as one of the lowest prices on the various fare search engines. It's becoming all the range in many industries, show a low price and then once you have them hooked, tack on a zillion stupid fees. As consumers we should not accept this crooked way of doing business, but we do.

 

[lxskllr]

Because by using all these nickel and dime fees, they can hit you with them while still showing up as one of the lowest prices on the various fare search engines. It's becoming all the range in many industries, show a low price and then once you have them hooked, tack on a zillion stupid fees. As consumers we should not accept this crooked way of doing business, but we do.

Exactly. It's a dishonest way of doing business. An itemized list is great so you can see what you're really buying, but it should be up front. If you're paying $500 for a ticket, it should show as $500. They can then break it all down, and let you add or subtract features to adjust the price if possible.

 

[DukeN]

LOL if you think that's bad, try Toronto pearson.

 

[Wonderful Pork]

Because by using all these nickel and dime fees, they can hit you with them while still showing up as one of the lowest prices on the various fare search engines. It's becoming all the range in many industries, show a low price and then once you have them hooked, tack on a zillion stupid fees. As consumers we should not accept this crooked way of doing business, but we do.

I believe there are new standards for airfares to prevent them from doing that. The flight I was looking at was from Boston - Mumbai, India and the total cost was $1100, with ~$500 being the airfare and $600 being the fees (like $500 fuel and $100 immigration, etc whatever fees)

What kills me about the fees is that they are NOT consistent amongst carriers and aren't really dependent on miles traveled. In fact they are lower going from Overseas -> USA than USA -> international.

And the WORST? If you use miles to redeem a ticket, you still get nailed for these surcharges. Can you imagine shelling out 50,000 miles for a flight AND $500? Unreal.

 

[MaxPayne63]

Security theater doesn't pay for itself.

Oh, um, I mean that if it weren't for all that nickel and dime bullshit your wife would've been killed by terrorists. The fact that you value your family so little means you are probably an unfit parent, and an HHS SWAT team will be arriving shortly to make sure your children can grow up in a more suitable foster home.

 

[dud]

My 90 year old mother in law is in the hospital in Montreal so my wife has to fly up there as she can't find out anything about what is going on with her from here. I knew up front the airfare would be ridiculous but I didn't expect that $124.00 of it would be taxes and fees!
U.S. Customs User Fee: 5.50
U.S. Immigration User Fee: 7.00
U.S. APHIS User Fee: 5.00
U.S. Federal Transportation Tax: 50.33
U.S. Flight Segment Tax: 7.60
September 11th Security Fee: 2.50
Canadian Security Charge: 12.80
Canada Airport Improvement Fee: 25.10
Canada Goods and Services Tax: 1.30
Canada - Quebec Sales Tax: 2.50
U.S. Passenger Facility Charge: 4.50

On top of that is another $92.00 in taxes and fees for the rental car which is about 82% of the $113.00 rental of the car itself.

Good Grief!

So what was the total cost of the RT ticket from (I assume) VA to Montreal?

 

[Linflas]

So what was the total cost of the RT ticket from (I assume) VA to Montreal?

$795.13+$50.00 ($25 each way) for a freaking suitcase. If I would have bought a ticket yesterday for the same flight today it would have been $50.00 cheaper. For all those posts saying the prices when looking up the fares don't include the taxes and fees I have to say that all the quotes I got from Travelocity, Expedia, and United itself all quoted fares that included the fees. In theory we can apply for a 5% rebate of the airfare by providing hospital, attending physician etc info to United when she returns. The rental car cost really pisses me off as the taxes and fees essentially double the rate.