My mum has just booked a return flight to Perth,Australia,business class with a 3 hour stop in Dubai for the connecting flight.She was told the tax on the ticket will be £985! She was told it was tax for the government,which government they didn’t elaborate.She’s going to query it with them tomorrow but any ideas on how they reached this figure? All I can see is Airport Passenger Duty tax that works out’s at £150.

Emirates? Did she book direct with them or via some iffy internet site?

It’s surprisingly complex and they take ticket class into account.

Business class about as far as it’s possible to fly, big tax bill – HMRC thanks your mum and her deluxe approach to travel.

Taxes, fees, and charges. Sounds about right tbh – that’s probably a 5-6k ticket with extra fees for the dxb stopoff. Doesn’t it show a breakdown on the booking?

Edit: just plugged it into the emirates app, that ticket comes up as £5146, including taxes and charges of £980. That’s £266 of taxes and airport charges, the other £700 odd is carrier imposed charges, essentially fuel surcharge.

Yep, sounds about right for a c. £5-6k ticket.

Booked it through her usual local travel agent.Ticket was 2.5k which she had budgeted for,it’s a once in a lifetime trip and she’ll be 76 so wanted a bit of luxury.

That’s a good price for a return! Who with?

If you’re staying over a WE you get much better pricing than Mon-Fri trip, which have all the prices hiked to gouge businesses.

Sorry don’t know but it’s through a flight company the agent found and includes door to airport shuttles both ends,use of business lounge,reastaurant meals etc.and it’s actually £2,300.Mind you it’s not till next February!

Assuming it’s 380 with Emirates, go for a window seat, in an odd numbered row. Much more private than the even numbers.

Cheers CFH I’ll let her know.She wanted to go on the Dreamliner but they don’t come into sevice on that route till later in the year

Emirates don’t operate Dreamliners. Only 777’s and A380’s with some legacy A330’s, 777 classics in the process of being phased out (if they haven’t already exited the fleet). The A380 is much nicer anyway, especially in business class. They keep threatening a 787 vs. A350 campaign but it hasn’t materialised yet.

Qatar Airways and Etihad operate Dreamliners.

Emirates business does the door to door service as part of the package.

Last time I flew to the uk the total cost was around $900 and the taxes and fees came to $570ish…

Were there is money to be taken someone will take it.

I looked at using some Avios points for flights the other day, San Francisco, flights were 16250 Avios + £236.36 “taxes, fees and carrier charges” per person per leg. So that’s basically £500 each return, plus 32500 Avios. How much to just book a flight to San Francisco? £460 return, of which only £66 is actually ticket price.

Sorry, what’s the point of Avios points?!

@njee20 depends what country you’re flying out of. A business single from Hong Kong to London on Avios cost me about £35 in taxes I think!

and the flip sides of points is really you need to know how to use them effectively

Etihad normally charges $12,000 one-way for a First class ticket from Sydney or Melbourne to Abu Dhabi. But it’s possible to secure a seat for less than a quarter of the retail price!

As Etihad is (somewhat ironically) a partner of American Airlines, our member was able to redeem their American Airlines AAdvantage miles for this flight. For each passenger they paid 100,000 AAdvantage miles and just $87 in taxes.

A particularly useful feature of Etihad’s partnership with American Airlines is that American sells its AAdvantage miles – often at a generous discount. American Airlines currently has a promotion on mile purchases which runs until the end of May. If you were to buy 100,000 miles during American’s current promotion, you’d pay only USD2,065 (AU$2,784).
http://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/first-class-for-a-fraction-of-the-price/

For me I can get a cut Business flights on points from my local airport and 50% on top of the Economy price, the $ figure is normally 5-6x the price so I do that to take the sting out of the first and last leg of the flight some times, also the upgrade points are a much better way to spend them.

I use Avios to upgrade or for wine. Earning more than I can spend!

I, on the other hand, would consider sealing myself into a parcel to save money.

My Glasgow-Heathrow-SFO and San Diego-Heathrow-Glasgow flights in August-Oct this year cost £342. Actual fare was £14. The rest taxes,fees,charges.

GBP 342.56
Payment Date 11 Mar 2017
Flight tickets issued by British Airways, Newcastle, UK
IATA Number 91498363
Endorsements Pax nonrefundable restrictions apply -bg:ba
Fare Details GBP 14.00

@njee20 depends what country you’re flying out of. A business single from Hong Kong to London on Avios cost me about £35 in taxes I think!

No such luck from the UK!

The wine packages look good, was thinking that’s a far better use of them!

been more of the 365 to halifax for my holidays sort of fella, i thought Etihad was a football ground in manchester