Best seat in the airplane.

[Katys Grandad]

I think there's a fundamental misunderstanding here. For sure, the actual TAXES go to HM Revenue but the fuel surcharges are imposed and retained by the airline at their discretion. It simply isn't true that the airline has to hand over all but £70 of a £361 fare. No airline could possibly operate for long on those rates.

The real rip off is the huge difference between individual airlines. It becomes very apparent when you look at a mileage redemption ticket. If you fly from Orlando to London on American Airlines you'll pay £3.20 in taxes and charges on top of the 'miles'. For the same journey on the same day on BA you will be charged £150.70 - around 50 times more. There is no UK tax on either journey so there is no reason why the payment should be so massively different other than the way the individual airline chooses to apply the surcharges.

Go figure!

[Lyn]

I think there's a fundamental misunderstanding here. For sure, the actual TAXES go to HM Revenue but the fuel surcharges are imposed and retained by the airline at their discretion. It simply isn't true that the airline has to hand over all but £70 of a £361 fare. No airline could possibly operate for long on those rates.

The real rip off is the huge difference between individual airlines. It becomes very apparent when you look at a mileage redemption ticket. If you fly from Orlando to London on American Airlines you'll pay £3.20 in taxes and charges on top of the 'miles'. For the same journey on the same day on BA you will be charged £150.70 - around 50 times more. There is no UK tax on either journey so there is no reason why the payment should be so massively different other than the way the individual airline chooses to apply the surcharges.

Go figure!

Now that is an eye opener, it seems not to matter what we buy here in Britain we always seem to get ripped off.