'Green' fees flying out of Heathrow?

[Spikesgirl]

We just had friends return from England yesterday and they said that they were hit with a 20 pound 'green fee' upon departure. i was just wondering a bit about that, as to whether it's across the board, restricted to certain airlines, etc.

 

We're travelling to the U.K. in July and want to make sure we have our ducks in a row.

 

Thanks!

 

Charlie

[coxswain]

Its across the board !!

 

 

 

 

 

jj.......

[ollienbertsmum]

We booked in Dec for a Feb flight and had to pay an extra tax, whereas the seat we booked in late January already had the extra included.

 

the chancellor announced the extra tax between those 2 months. I think that is the extra you are referrring to.

 

Why not budget for it and then if you do not have to pay up, you have the money for a sandwich in the departure lounge

[RichYak]

We just had friends return from England yesterday and they said that they were hit with a 20 pound 'green fee' upon departure.

I believe the cutoff date was around December 12 or 13. If you were "ticketed" after that date, you've already paid it. Prior to that date, you should be charged upon check-in.

[MacThespian]

I believe the cutoff date was around December 12 or 13. If you were "ticketed" after that date, you've already paid it. Prior to that date, you should be charged upon check-in.

 

Does this apply to Gatwick also?

Thanks.

[Elaine0138]

It applies to all UK airports

[Spikesgirl]

Thanks for all your replies. I sort of figured it was across the board, but you can't blame a girl for asking. We made reservations, but actually put down our final payment in May, so I'm not sure if we've paid the tax or not.

 

We're calling our TA as I type this.

 

Cheers!

 

Charlie

[MacThespian]

It applies to all UK airports

 

Thanks for the info.

[ollienbertsmum]

. Prior to that date, you should be charged upon check-in.

 

We actually got quite a bullying letter from Monarch air saying that we had to pay the extra as soon as possible or our flight would not be guaranteed. I could not pay through the web site and had one of those long 'hold' calls that you think makes them more profit than the plane ticket.

 

OK this was back in Feb, maybe more or less everyone is sorted out now, I would have appreciated being politely told I needed to pay at check in.

 

Travel companies do not always seem to put customer care first.

[Globaliser]

We just had friends return from England yesterday and they said that they were hit with a 20 pound 'green fee' upon departure. i was just wondering a bit about that, as to whether it's across the board, restricted to certain airlines, etc.

It's not a "green fee" or a "green tax", as the government would like to have us believe. It's just a doubling of the tax that they charge on air passengers. Not a penny of it is earmarked for the environment. We'll have to see whether any of the money ends up getting spent on "green" projects at all.

 

That dishonesty aside, what happened was this. In about December, the government announced that the tax would be doubled as from a date in February. Normal industry practice is that the tax is payable for everyone who books after the date of the announcement (or some other date after the announcement) for travel on a date after the effective date of the tax rise. That way, everyone pays the correct amount of tax through their ticket purchase.

 

But for whatever reason best known to itself, the government decided that this tax rise would apply to all travel from the effective date of the tax rise, irrespective of the date on which the ticket was bought. So those who had bought tickets before the date of the announcement for travel after the effective date of the tax rise found themselves unwittingly having paid insufficient tax.

 

Some airlines are collecting this extra tax at the time of travel (as they are entitled to). Some other airlines are swallowing this cost so that travellers who bought their tickets before the announcement don't have to pay the extra, which is just being covered by the airline.