Delta gouging European flyers on taxes

[Carolinian]

I want to warn anyone flying from Europe about a new scam from Delta airlines on those flying trans-Atlantic with their tickets originating in Europe. In time, this may also apply to tickets originating in the US.

Delta is now charging over $300 in ''taxes and fees'' for paid or award tickets originating in Europe, compared to about $100 for the same city pairs originating in the US. Other airlines charge about $100 either direction. I inquired of a reservation agent what this was and she claimed she didn't know exactly but did not think it was a fuel surcharge.

I recently was looking for an award ticket on both DL and NW for next summer originating in Europe and travelled to the US. DL found a routing that was some time from when I wanted to travel, but quoted an eyepopping $332 for taxes and fees. I then checked NW and they found me a ticket within a few days of my best date, and charged taxes of only $81 on the same city pairs and same direction of travel.

In checking schedules for a business trip in March back to the US, I also looked at both websites, and again found DL charging over $300 in taxes and fees if the travel originated in Europe, but only about $100 between the same city pairs if booked from the US

[x3 skier]

I read a couple of threads on Flyertalk that indicated that the bottom line seems to work out pretty close. Delta lowballs the ticket price and then adds fees while NW lowballs the fees but has a higher basic price.

I agree that Delta is being disingenuous but its best to compare what you final tab is before buying the ticket, FF miles or cash.

BTW, about a month ago, I got a TATL ticket from Delta to London and return from Venice on Air France with fees etc, of $81.

Cheers

[Carolinian]

Originally Posted by x3 skier

I read a couple of threads on Flyertalk that indicated that the bottom line seems to work out pretty close. Delta lowballs the ticket price and then adds fees while NW lowballs the fees but has a higher basic price.

I agree that Delta is being disingenuous but its best to compare what you final tab is before buying the ticket, FF miles or cash.

BTW, about a month ago, I got a TATL ticket from Delta to London and return from Venice on Air France with fees etc, of $81.

Cheers

This is apparently something that just started very recently. Your ticket originated in the US, rather than Europe, so you did not get whacked. Of course, that other shoe may drop in the future, too.

On award tickets, there is no way this would come out in the wash, as there is no base air fare to balance excessive taxes against. The passenger is always hosed. Welcome to a massive devaluation of Skymiles if you live in Europe. And it may just be a matter of time before US-based flyers get hit with the same thing.

I have no doubt there will be paid fares that work out close to the same at the bottom line with all-in, when there are promotional fares in one direction and not the other, for example, as reported by one poster at Flyertalk. However, in the paid ticket comparisions I made, DL charged a somewhat higher fare than NW and a MUCH higher ''tax''. DL also charged a higher fare than on its own flights in the other direction, and again a MUCH higher ''tax''. I have frequently found DL's base fares from Europe higher than those originating in the US.

One poster at Flyertalk seemed to think that this was a violation of DOT rules, so it may be worth filing a complaint with them. Taxes should be the same, no matter which end you start flying on. And one airline should not be subject to higher taxes than another.

[camachinist]

Hey Steve, why not burn up one sacrificial award ticket to set up a perpetual US O&D, kinda like the guys who do the C MR's out of CMB (Sri Lanka). Depending on how often you pop over, it could end up saving you a bunch of money.

But, then again, maybe a class action might be more appropriate

BTW, in spite of that craziness, I'm seeing 471 all-in out of my local (FAT) to MUC/FRA, etc right now all the way into spring....boy am I tempted. Germany must be hurting for weak US dollars 3.2K + 7 weekends to 1K if I don't mind sitting in LH Y some of the time. Hmmm..

Pat

[Carol C]

Delta has been in merger talks, so I think they're trying to beef up their bottom line to look more valuable on paper. We the consumers will suffer the consequences, as usual.

[Carolinian]

Originally Posted by Carol C

Delta has been in merger talks, so I think they're trying to beef up their bottom line to look more valuable on paper. We the consumers will suffer the consequences, as usual.

What really concerns me is that they are in merger talks with the airline where I have my elite status and my biggest ff account, NW. My leftovers from my days as a DL gold medallion is my second biggest ff account.

As a result of a thread at Flyertalk, I called and went through a lot of runaround from several people at DL until I was finally passed to someone at revenue who gave me some even more disturbing news. This is not a tax all, although the first people I spoke with swore up and down that it was (''France has a lot of taxes, like the UK'' - ugh, right!) and then I was told it was a ''France surcharge'' that had something to do with Air France but they didn't know what exactly. Finally the revenue desk told me that it was a ''Delta surcharge'' and that all of the money went to Delta, none to any government or other airline and when I pressed what this was for, she told me ''I don't have a reasonable explanation''. Then came the bombshell. She went on to tell me that this had just been imposed in selected markets in Europe but would soon be expanded to all of Europe, and would include flights originating in the US. Eventually, it would be expanded to ''all travel areas''. So what it comes down to is that DL is going to charge you an extra fee to redeem SkyMiles since this is on the ''taxes and fees'' line. It will be an extra about $200 for a R/T ticket to Europe. This is a huge devaluation of SkyMiles.

If you have SkyMiles (or as some say, SkyPiles), all I can say is ''burn, baby, burn''.

Oh, and I am highly motivated to write every elected official and regulator who might help stop the merger of DL and NW if one is proposed.

[Carolinian]

Originally Posted by camachinist

Hey Steve, why not burn up one sacrificial award ticket to set up a perpetual US O&D, kinda like the guys who do the C MR's out of CMB (Sri Lanka). Depending on how often you pop over, it could end up saving you a bunch of money.

But, then again, maybe a class action might be more appropriate

BTW, in spite of that craziness, I'm seeing 471 all-in out of my local (FAT) to MUC/FRA, etc right now all the way into spring....boy am I tempted. Germany must be hurting for weak US dollars 3.2K + 7 weekends to 1K if I don't mind sitting in LH Y some of the time. Hmmm..

Pat

Hey if you want to do an add on to where the dollar still spends reasonably well, Ryanair has had some ''Free'' tickets out of Frankfurt-Hahn lately, and Germanwings had a €0.11 sale, so maybe you could find some LCC flights farther east.

With all of this, I certainly hope that DL doesn't end up with either NW or UA.

In light of the expansion of this plan noted in my other post, your suggestion would not be that much help, I am afraid. Also, these days, I am getting enough employer paid TATL trips to maintain my elite status and take all the side trips to NC that I really need. I am mostly using miles for family travel.

[camachinist]

The strategy works for a pure award scenario as well; just book way out and do rolling date changes....