Done, even persuaded my husband to send one too.
Andrena
Thanks everyone . Tell your friends and family. Interesting point from Robert. I've told my MP I plan to fly from Dublin next year as they have done away with this over the top tax.
Tonish
I hate this tax with a passion and have completed the e-mail but the equation isn't quite as simple as it seems and we have to be careful what we wish for.
Firstly, using just a mileage criterion, Florida actually falls into a higher band that it's currently charged for. That's because the distance used is to the capital city of the country and Washington D.C. is much nearer to the UK than, say, Orlando. Take a look at what APD is for flights to the Far East and Australia and the tax that transatlantic travellers pay seems almost reasonable.
Secondly, while we pay many times more tax, the final fares to the US from other European nations aren't really that much different to ours and, in some instances, are higher. It is true that fares from Dublin are lower than from Belfast but there are also routing reasons behind that. The people who are really hammered by APD are First and Business class passengers and I don't detect too much sympathy amongst UK taxpayers & MP's for them in the current financial climate.
Finally, it's interesting that the main opposition to APD comes from the airlines themselves. The cynic in me thinks that reducing the tax would more likely result in higher profits for them rather than meaningful reductions in fares for travellers to the US.
Well worth sending the e-mail though.
Last edited by Katys Grandad; 25-07-2011 at 03:38.
Theoretically you should still pay the full transatlantic APD unless you break your journey in Dublin for 48 hours(might be 24 hours?). That even applies(again in theory) if you flew Ryanair to Dublin and had a separate ticket transatlantic. Of course in practice it will not be discovered that you are a 'tax dodger'!!!!Originally Posted by Tonish
As Katy's Grandad stated above it is the First/Business class passengers who really feel the impact of the high rates of APD and these passengers have the incentive to use European airports as their gateway rather than London.
The time lag for non payment of this tax is 24 hours - so unless you want to sleep at the airport you could end up paying more for a hotel than you could save unless you build a couple of days holiday into your plan.
Charging double APD for any seat above economy proves that really they government are not interested in 'green' issues just how much tax they can take from people. Trouble is if you squeeze the pips too much then you end up losing out!
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