Increasing "surcharges"

announcement

Await VS to mirror..

Well, prices do go up. So long as the price you see initially is the price you get at the end. Here in the US, and on the US VS website, prices are quoted tax free and "one-way" (but based on purchase of return flight), so advertised $199 from NY to London is actually about $600 in the end. This isn't as bad as some US budget airlines. Soon they'll be advertising free flights, its just that the fuel charge, airport fees, baggage charge, tax, lease of the airplane, security charge and CC wages will extra "surcharges"!

Well, prices do go up

They certainly do, and VS prices are already up around 10% on average compared to a year ago (this is me monitoring the price I pay for UC or PE tickets. In April 2009 a standard W to New York was around £1,650, that rose to £1,950 in 2010 and it is now around £2,200 for example.

I would like to see an end to fuel surcharges as they have a strong association in my mind as a device used to mislead customers. To VA’s credit they do appear to use fully inclusive prices everywhere on the (UK) website. So you have to ask the question; why do they not simply absorb the surcharges into the quoted price? The only conclusion I can come to is that it allows them to surcharge reward flights whilst continuing to promote them as a ‘free’ benefit. In spite of this I believe reward flights still represent a considerable saving to frequent flyers. My objection is that surcharges in this instance detract from the sense of straight-forwardness and honesty that I look for in suppliers I deal with and usually find with Virgin Group Companies.

I agree

The fuel surcharge is part of the base fare and is not an external 'add on' like airport fees etc and so should be included in the base price.

On the VS APD thread a chap was complaing about the £1k he had to pay in 'taxes' for 2 rewards to SYD but I did a dummy booking and over 1/2 that was VS fuel surcharges

I would like to see an end to fuel surcharges as they have a strong association in my mind as a device used to mislead customers. To VA’s credit they do appear to use fully inclusive prices everywhere on the (UK) website. So you have to ask the question; why do they not simply absorb the surcharges into the quoted price?

It's UK law that makes them display the full price, not VA being nice. They don't do it in other markets. Look at the US version of the site and special offers show the one way price (based on a return) and lots of small print about surcharges and taxes. The UK site shows the full return price.

Until all carriers are forced to display the full price, there's no incentive for VS to make themselves appear much more expensive than the next carrier.

Did VS follow BA a few months ago and increase their fuel surcharge? It would be very unusual to see fares being more than £1 different.

I would like to see an end to fuel surcharges as they have a strong association in my mind as a device used to mislead customers. To VA’s credit they do appear to use fully inclusive prices everywhere on the (UK) website. So you have to ask the question; why do they not simply absorb the surcharges into the quoted price? The only conclusion I can come to is that it allows them to surcharge reward flights whilst continuing to promote them as a ‘free’ benefit. In spite of this I believe reward flights still represent a considerable saving to frequent flyers. My objection is that surcharges in this instance detract from the sense of straight-forwardness and honesty that I look for in suppliers I deal with and usually find with Virgin Group Companies.

Firstly, it's against the law in the UK to quote prices "plus tax", so the fact that VS USA site does show "plus tax" prices means that the UK site is simply complying with local law - they aren't doing it out of the goodness of their hearts.

Fuel surcharges and this breakdown of "extra charges" dates back to days when BA paid commissions to travel agents - they seperated extra charges from the base fare and then stopped paying commission on it.

There's also the possibility that from an accounting perspective it's easier this way - BA can simply seperate out everything and allocate monies accordingly, when it comes to paying the bills!

Prices don't often fall when oil does... or at least, not quickly. Fiscal drag????