Stung for more cash??

Our chancellor announced yesterday that "passenger duty" (AKA as further theft from tax paying passengers/ companies) would be increasing from it's current threshold (to approximately double)[:(!]. I've just booked (and paid in full [:0][:0]) for the DL family jaunt to the Antipodes next summer in the nice comfy bit of the plane.Am I going to be stung for more dosh (like the sinister fuel surchage I've copped previously?)before we go? (Come to think of it we've a few jaunts planneed before then- will I be clobbered for these too?).
Julie

[mitchja]

Dont panic Julie

If you have paid for your fare, you will not have to pay any extra taxes.

Regards

Originally posted by mitchja
Dont panic Julie

If you have paid for your fare, you will not have to pay any extra taxes.

Regards

Phew....
Thanks James[y]

I was wondering much the same - have booked (only on Weds!) some UC flights for April. Hubby was saying he thought we might have to stump up the extra, I thought not - but couldn't find anything to back that up. Where did it state that you won't be liable for more if you're already paid?

It's no better than extortion - yet more taxes to go into the great black hole. Still, I guess we're all happy to pay extra to fund the lifestyle of these leeches - er leaders???[:w]

[Nottingham Nick]

Sorry, but according to the Daily Mail this morning.

Flights already booked will be subject to extra taxes. [V][:(!][n]

Nick

[Neil]

Originally posted by Nottingham Nick
Sorry, but according to the Daily Mail this morning.

Flights already booked will be subject to extra taxes. [V][:(!][n]

Nick

How unfair and unpractical - as the report says it would cause chaos at check in to expect everybody to have to pay extra and no doubt cause a lot of tension and anger amongst the pax, and what about those who haven't got a CC on them? Good old Gordon[V]

Neil:)

Originally posted by Nottingham Nick
Sorry, but according to the Daily Mail this morning.

Flights already booked will be subject to extra taxes. [V][:(!][n]

Nick

I am livid to say the least[:(!][n]Who pray tell is going to have the unpleasant task of trying to alleviate me of my money (as discussed in the Mail article)?? Check -in staff (poor souls)/ airline staff elsewhere or is Gordon Brown going to hire "marshalls" who'll cruise round airport checkins pouncing on passengers for the extra "duty"? The whole thing stinks.
Rant over.

I'm not so sure the Daily Mail are right on this one, don't forget how anti-labour they are! (And I am not exactly Labours biggest fan either).
There is no way check in staff are going to be expected to extract extra taxes from you when you check in. As far as I see it the changes come in for all flights booked from Feb next year.

I agree, once the tickets have been issued, it normally means that if the taxes go up they can not ask you for more money. I can not see the check in staff collecting the extra money. Let's hope the Daily Mail has got it wrong!

YAY it's Friday! [y]

I really hope we do not have to pay the extra for paid flights. We have treated ourselves for UC flights in March, we saved our money to do this, and now we maybe have to pay more. How unfair!

Again this is going to hit the lower paid people, having to fork out more money for their holidays. It is not going to effect the well off people, what is a few hundred quid to them.

I just would like to know what they are going to do with the money they collect from the "Green Tax". Spend it on the war effort I imagine.

I am going to shut up now. [:#]

[mitchja]

If the arilines are forced into asking for more tax to cover this, they then should also be prepared to give you back the reduction in the fuel surcharge which was reduced a few weeks ago.

Regards

I bet they will come after us for extra tax, and its a good thing that people are anti labour. Personally I am really worried that we have a government that will use the reform and regulatory act to suspend the law preventing parliments standing for more than 5 years.

Originally posted by PaulaB
I bet they will come after us for extra tax, and its a good thing that people are anti labour. Personally I am really worried that we have a government that will use the reform and regulatory act to suspend the law preventing parliments standing for more than 5 years.

Hmmm....OK here we go

The tax in principle is not a bad thing. The problem is it is not going to fund anything to do with reducing emissions and will just be another form of taxation which will go into the treasury chest and prop up the deficit..... There lies the issue. The bottom line is until we have a worldwide agreement that will work in practice to reduce the effects of harmful emissions then anything we do as a very small country has next to no effect.

Personally, I believe you would have faced very similar taxes should either the tories or lib-dems been in power (not that the lib-dems ever would be)

As for the War effort in Iraq, yes it was wrong to go in under the cover of such blatant lies, but lets not forget Thatcher also lied when she went to war over the Falklands. That was far more to do with sovereign rights over a landmass close to the Antarctic and therefore future Oil rights than the protection of a small number of farmers and their sheep.

Bottom line is sadly ALL Governments lie, but look on the positive side, at least Labour banned Foxhunting and we have not returned to the boom and bust policies that we suffered under the tories.

If you really want to complain about taxes.... Of far bigger impact was the one brought in which raised VAT to 17.5% this costs everyone far more per year than this green tax will and I'll leave you to guess which party thought that one up.

Edited to add this: It would be wrong though to make anyone who has already paid for tickets to have to stump up more cash

Jon B

Here we go indeed... Brown has stuck us for more tax over the past 10 years than any Chancellor in history. Inheritance tax? Stamp duty? It's all about the good old-fashioned labour principle of tax and spend - and he's spent £4000 billion since he got in (on what I hear you ask...?).

"Passenger Duty" is just another attempt to fund Brown's spending addiction. It will have no effect on reducing emissions, it won't be spent on anything remotely green, but it will mean that us poor mugs have - yet again - to dig deeper into our collective pockets to get from A to B.

And I give it about 10 minutes before this topic gets locked...

Originally posted by mdvipond
Here we go indeed... Brown has stuck us for more tax over the past 10 years than any Chancellor in history. Inheritance tax? Stamp duty? It's all about the good old-fashioned labour principle of tax and spend - and he's spent £4000 billion since he got in (on what I hear you ask...?).

"Passenger Duty" is just another attempt to fund Brown's spending addiction. It will have no effect on reducing emissions, it won't be spent on anything remotely green, but it will mean that us poor mugs have - yet again - to dig deeper into our collective pockets to get from A to B.

And I give it about 10 minutes before this topic gets locked...

Before it does get locked lets just agree to disagree on this

Politics as we all know are a deeply personal thing

Jon B

Yikes, I didn't mean to create a political row
I was just pointing out that I would take this article with a pinch of salt given which paper it's in and their party bias and the fact no one else has come up with this story either - at least as far as I am aware.
Once again, there is no way they can back tax you on this one if you book today they just cannot charge you extra on the day of departure for this tax. It would be kicking off big time at the check in desks and it's just not morally right.

[Decker]

Ermm yes. Suspect that this is not the best place to have a political discussion - leave it to the socials!

Thanks

Going back to main point of the thread - I friend in VAA tells me that you will not be asked to pay the extra tax if you have already paid for your flight in full. The same goes for Virgin Holidays even if you have only paid a deposit as the price is guaranteed at the time of booking.

The only time you might be asked to stump up some extra cash is you have booked a VAA flight through a travel operator and have only paid a deposit for that flight.

[Scrooge]

So what this means is that on some routes you will end up paying more in taxes and surcharges than you wil for the fare itself...Does this make VS a LLC ?

Ok joking aside, honestly this s getting stupid, on my previous flight over the taxes and fuel surcharge were = to the fare paid, which in someways is good, but I can now fly a heck of a lot cheaper with CO to LGW with one stop, before it was just cheaper, but the extra couple of hrs meant that I had to balance savings over time, between VS prices, non disappearing surcharges and the extra taxes VS now works out to be double CO«s price...oh well.

Ooh, I hope all the optimists are right and no more cash will need to be be prised from the DL's purse in the coming months. Unfortunately I am a cynical beast and am not so convinced.I do think however this will be an extremely poor PR move for the current government (and I am not a political animal so to speak)and that Mr Brown's spin doctors will have misjudged the feelings of the great British public (be they once yearly bucket and spaders or those who spend most of their lives commuting from airport to airport).It'll be interesting to see how this inevitable saga unfolds in the tabloids (for I'm sure it will).

So much for my sources [:(!]

According to the Times, the tax increases will be charged retrospectively... at check in!!
http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,10295-2500537,00.html

Good 'ol Labour [n][n][n]

Originally posted by Virgin Sheep
So much for my sources [:(!]

According to the Times, the tax increases will be charged retrospectively... at check in!!
http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,10295-2500537,00.html

Good 'ol Labour [n][n][n]

Yes I read that too, and while (without reigniting) I don't object to this tax (though would like to see green taxes balanced out by reductions in other areas), this policy of charging the addition at check in is just plain stupid. Probably dreamt up by some mannequin in the Treasury who has no idea of the practicalities of it.

However, I would imagine that the industry will be pushing back very hard on this and there is a chance that it might change. Some items in the pre-budget report and the budget itself do change from proposal to implementation (albeit often for the worse as my wine reserves noted [:(!]).

Watch that space, otherwise as The Times reports, check-in will worsen again and check-in agents will be leaving in droves through stress and illness!

Some items in the pre-budget report and the budget itself do change from proposal to implementation

Let's hope so, eh

[mitchja]

Not wanting to fuel the fire any further but just come across this on Business Traveller which is saying that the extra tax will have to be paid on every flight taken after Feb 1st 2007 (including those already booked) [:(!]

Regards

I read that BAA (I think) is considering launching an enquiry as to the legality of charging this tax if you've already paid in ful for your flight. So who knows? Seems Monsieur Brown has again managed to create an atmosphere of non-clarity...[n]