The UK Civil Aviation Authority has told Heathrow Airport to drop passenger fees starting next year. The fee is paid by the airlines but included in ticket prices. The drop will only be around 6 GBP but hopefully airlines will pass that saving onto its passengers.
Posted by
Hudson Valley
2267 posts
It's not the airport's passenger fees that are the problem at Heathrow, it's the UK government departure duty that's the real problem there.
Posted by
Los Angeles
4392 posts
Everyone who has tried to use frequent flyer miles for LHR knows all too well about all the fees and charges.
Posted by
OP
Freedonia
14984 posts
Its amazing how those fees vary from airline to airline. I save about $600-800 round trip in fees switching from BA to AA.
Posted by
Hudson Valley
2267 posts
Frank II- those are BA’s carrier fees. Totally different from airport fees or taxes.
Posted by
OP
Freedonia
14984 posts
I know those are carrier fees. But the difference between airlines is ridiculous.
Using AA miles, roundtrip from USA to London, AA's fees were $400. BA was $1200.
BA did announce in December they would let people pay less in fees and more in miles.
Posted by
Oxford, United Kingdom
5326 posts
The British-based transatlantic carriers have a balancing act to do because of the differing policies in force in the UK and the USA. The American credit market looks crazy from here, with hundreds of thousands of "points" (to be generic) being given away as enticements to sign up on even fairly basic cards. They can afford to do this because of the weak consumer regulation in place on credit card interchange fees.
By contrast with the 0.2-0.3% fees in the British market cards introductory offers (and for that matter ongoing ones) can't be generous at all apart from ones aimed at high spenders. Although this is offset somewhat by direct promotions it means there are a lot more points sloshing around in the USA than the UK. Demand has been managed so there is some availability by charging fees, and these can be sometimes disproportionally high on singles/returns originating in the USA.