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Question about Flight Price Taxes/“Suspended Ticket”

Hi all! I looked to see if I could find a similar question. If I missed it, please point me in the right direction…

Last year we purchased flights to London on TAP Airlines for a friend’s wedding. At the time, the price we paid for the flight included $1116 in taxes.
We ended up cancelling the trip due to the variant, and TAP Air was really great about letting us pick new dates, with no change fee. We had no clue what to pick so the agent located dates that were the same exact price as what we had paid, so no need to owe money. Perfect, right?

Cut to right now, and our trip is in 4 weeks. Due to a variety of issues old and new, we feel we cannot make it. I called TAP and was told I could get a voucher for the cost of the tickets, but it would only be for the taxes. Ok, that’s understandable. But when I checked the new booking, I saw that the taxes only total $740. Somehow, almost $400 worth of taxes has disappeared. Is that normal? If the price was the same as our initial booking, wouldn’t the taxes be the same? If the taxes were less, should we not have received a refund before?

She also said that we could “suspend” the tickets which is basically a credit that we can use later. However, since the taxes are $400 less, that means the credit would be $400 less then what we paid.

Before I call and question, I just want to make sure I’m not missing something. Thanks!!

Posted by
8879 posts

I am so sorry that your plans fell through, again. I honestly don’t know the ends and outs on taxes, but I do think that you are very fortunate to be getting back as much as you are.

Posted by
2267 posts

Are those listed as just taxes? Or "taxed and fees", "taxes and surcharges" "taxes and..." etc?

Airlines build their tickets price to be more "fees/surcharges" than actual airfare. And I'm not talking about baggage fees or seat fees. Just opaque fees.

This is in the age-old tradition of corporations dodging taxes.

Posted by
712 posts

Thanks all! It says Taxes (not Taxes and Fees), but I’m suspicious. I screen shot the original email that lists all the taxes and compared it with the current booking’s email. All of the types of taxes are there but the amounts are now drastically lower. For example, one of the listed taxes is “111.50GB” and is now “17.30GB”.
I got through to the airline again and she said it is because some of the “taxes are nonrefundable”, but does that mean part of the tax isn’t refundable or certain taxes aren’t refundable?
I guess I should be happy to get back anything, as was suggested above.

Posted by
23626 posts

Unfortunately you are at the mercy of the airlines. We recently had an experience with EasyJet where we missed a connection because our original flight was cancelled. We thought we had bought a refund ticket but missed some of the fine print -- had to be used within a year. They did refund the taxes which was about a third of the ticket. I don't think anyone will have a good answer for you because this is a very fuzzy area.