Hello,
This will be my FIRST European trip. I'm planning for June 2014. I've found great prices booking hotel and flight through Expedia and Cheaptickets. My question, I've heard about a huge departure fee that is charged in Europe. Has anyone heard of this? Has anyone used Expedia or Cheaptickets before to see if these departure fees are included?
Just in the last three years (some multiples), I have left from: Lisbon, Istanbul, Paris, Bordeaux, London, Moscow, Shannon and lastly Florence (just this week). I have never had to pay a departure fee or tax.
Are you maybe seeing a separate charge of several hundred dollars during the booking process? One that maybe is described as air taxes or fees? Something that can be broken down as possibly looking like:
airfare $ xxxx
taxes $ xxx
hotel $ xxxx
Airfare and taxes are inseparable during the flight booking process - both have to be paid at the same time and show the full price of the air tickets. They are often listed as separate charges though. They are always paid upfront. Does this clarify things for you?
I never used cheaptickets (their prices seemed to be same as everyone else's) but I've never had any issues with the major booking sites (expedia, travelocity, orbitz). Back in the bad old days, Toronto and Montreal airports used to hit you up for a couple of bucks on departure, just a nuisance really. Your hotels may charge a local tax that has to be paid on top of the prepaid fees. In Italy that is quite common (usually a couple of euros per person per night). Don't know about the UK. These are all minor.
All taxes, fees, and airline surcharges are part of the final ticket price for western European countries. What you see on the site's final page is what you pay. Elsewhere there can be government fees resembling visa charges that hae to be paid separately, especially in South America for flights to the US and Canada.
A wise strategy for shopping with these on-line travel agencies is to compare their prices to what is offered on the airlines' own sites.
All airports have some "junk" fees and taxes included in the price of airfares. They're finally itemized when you buy your ticket with any booking agency. They may be talking about some extra taxes when flying out of London Heathrow when flying to the U.S.
There's really nothing you can do, other than fly out of another airport.
http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ is where I research any flights. After I decide where and when I want to go, I often book directly with the airline. FYI: The most inexpensive place I've found any fares is FareBoom.com.
The IATA (International Air Transport Association) website (http://www.iatatravelcentre.com/) will show you the airport taxes levied by each country. Many countries do levy an airport departure tax - also called an embarkation tax or air passenger duty. Some countries - mostly in Asia or Central/South America - collect this separately. But as Southam said, in the EU all such taxes are included in the price of the ticket. So for flights to and from Europe, all you have to do is compare the published bottom line ticket prices to find the best fare.
