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Why
are taxes so high?
So...you've
found that great fare to Greece...only $475 plus tax.
Great! Then you go to purchuse it and what do you
find? The taxes are $160...or $200 or even $300! My
goodness, that's over 50% of the cost of the ticket!
How can the taxes be so high?
Well, once
you see everything that you are being taxed on...you'll
see! I've used a round trip flight from Boston to
Athens. American Airlines to JFK and a direct flight
to Athens. Keep in mind, I'm using the company with
the lower taxes... for the same itinerary on British
Air(but traveling through London) the taxes are $260.35
, while on Lufthansa through Germany the taxes are
$246.75, KLM through Amsterdam-$211.55 and Air France
through Paris- $229.
If you
have to fly from another US city to one of the gateways
to Europe you can expect to pay even more in taxes...
But here
is the breakdown for the American Airways/Olympic
flights from Boston to Athens.
| Tax
Amount |
Code |
Description |
| 7.00 |
XY |
US
Customs |
| 4.00 |
WQ |
Athens
Airport Developement |
| 4.95 |
XA |
US
Dept of Agriculture |
| 13.90 |
WP |
Athens
Security |
| 5.00 |
YC |
US
Immigration |
| 27.20 |
GR |
Greek
Gov't |
| 9.00 |
XF |
US
Airport passenger facility |
| 28.20 |
US |
US
tax in Int'l icket |
| 7.50 |
AY |
Sep
11 Security |
| 66.80 |
YQ |
Fuel
surcharge and Airline security |
| 173.55 |
|
Total |
There you
have it! and you can expect these taxes to continue
to go up because fuel is not getting any cheaper and
with our shortsighted plan to "fight terrorism",
our need for security is only going to increase!
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