 Poster: A snowHead
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Just changed my booking for the MSB to add a skibag and noticed that Easyjet now want another £5 off me because of Gordon Brown's increase in the flight taxes 
Check your bookings people, if you've already paid for flights that are liable for it then no doubt you'll need to cough up the extra as well.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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FenlandSkier, blame the man himself rather than easyJet 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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FenlandSkier, Just means we got a return flight to Geneva with ski's for £50 
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Michelle, oh I don't blame Easyjet at all, they're just passing on the taxes. No doubt Thomsonfly & BA will be after their money as well for the flights I've got booked.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Gordon Brown is a scammer. The airlines were apparently ready and willing to invest in a carbon neutralisation scheme, but now due to this new tax, they are unable to. Shows a complete disregard for the environment and a blatant attempt to wrangle a few quid more out of everyone's collective pocket. Doesn't he realise that increased tax doesn't deter anyone?
Smoking, drinking, driving etc.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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just got my email demand from EJ. Yet another stealth tax -
get used to it - when Gordon gets in there'll be more and more of this.
Have you ever looked at how much of what you earn goes in tax - direct and indirect - from income through poll to car (purchase, road fund license etc etc), clothes, meal out, fuel (fuel!!!!), alcohol...........
Skiing is expensive enough without parasite Gordon's grubby mitts fleecing my wallet!
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I have to admit this is probably one of his better ideas, currently airline fuel is not taxed, is it right that we should be taxed to put fuel in our cars, but not in our planes, after all planes are far more polluting. Anyway i think everyone would agree that the £5 will soon be forgotten when you touch down in the mountains
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FWIW, I heard something on the radiothe other day (Moneybox?) indicating that it was the airlines' problem, not the passengers. Everyone seemed to agree, reluctantly in the case of the airline reps, that they had no ability to recover the etra tax from customers who had already paid. One budget airline, I think easyjet, said that they would ask customers for the extra and hope that they coughed up.
shockingmoment, how can you call this a 'stealth tax'; it has been as widely reported as any other tax increase? You cannot realistically describe every tax increase other than income tax as a 'stealth' tax (you can if you wish to, of course, but it's a bit pointless).
PS It's less straightforward than I thought, unless you have a package; see here. Still, it's not clear that we have to cough up. Alitalia haven't asked me for any more cash for a flight next Tuesday, nor have BMI for one in Feb.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Have received similar request from Jet2 for flights booked before the tax increase. Be interested to know what the legal position is. I cancelled a couple of flights last year with Jet2 and tried to claim the taxes back on the basis that as I didn't travel they wouldn't be liable for the passenger duty but no dice. I intend to remind them of this in the light of this new situation
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davidpratt15, maybe airline fuel should be taxed and reduce tax on petrol. I do not for one second thing that taxing airline fuel will in anyway reduce the number of flights or stop people flying which was the point of the tax. its is supposed to influence people to stay at home and create less CO2 but lets be honest its just another of Gordens money making scams to make government books balance and shaw up a debt ridden economy that's teetering on the brink of recession
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Do we *have* to pay?
The email suggests not
"Failure to make the additional APD payment *may* [my emphasis] result in you not being allowed to take your flight"
also the link to the beeb story quotes someone from easyjet:
Toby Nichol of Easyjet says the airline faces an extra £4.5m tax bill if passengers are not prepared to pay up but making them do so could be difficult.
He hopes passengers will be prepared to pay an extra £5 to cover the tax as a goodwill gesture.
"We will be going back to our customers and saying - the chancellor has doubled air passenger duty - how do you feel about giving us an extra fiver?" he said.
And he added: "We still have not ruled out the idea of putting on our Gordon Brown costumes and walking up and down the aisle on 1 February collecting with a bucket."
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Luckily Thomson is not applying the extra charge (at least not yet).
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I fully expect all carriers to try and collect this at point of departure.
It is a bothched job as it is a retrospectiove tax is many cases and this is typical of Brown, he designs taxes to be as obtuse as possible. But then he is so desperate to
get more money in as he can't balance his books. He will go on about the performance of his 10 years in tenure but how come if it has been that great we are still so much in debt...and will be for a good few years yet. You pay back debts in the good times don't you...? or most prudent people do.
As for the supposed purpose of the tax.... you are having a laugh...
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You know it makes sense.
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Gordon Brown knows that sticking an extra £5 onto flight costs is going to have no effect on the publics choice of transport for their holidays, if he wanted to set an example he'd need to add at least £100, this is just another way of collecting a little more money from the general public, I'm not sure but I think I read recently that if you combine the various taxes in the UK we now contribute the greatest (or possibly second greatest) proportion of our earnings to the government in Europe or possibly the world, I have to wonder where it's all going, after all defence has been cut to the point where our troops are often quoted as being poorly supplied with the equipment they need, hospitals are trying to cut back wherever possible and education seems to be suffering and whilst the police are eager to nick you for speeding you might as well not bother to inform them if your car is nicked as they seem unlikely to turn up.
One last thought, I notice that Gordons extra £5 per flight goes straight into the general pile of funds rather than being allocated for green/enviromental projects, I think that shows exactly who is lying (not that I'd expect anything different from any of the other political parties)
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Richmond:
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how can you call this a 'stealth tax'
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Stealth: Surreptitious, Sneaky, Sly, Crafty.
Is the revenue going to be spent on 'Green' issues?
No.
As previous poster has said - people will coninue to fly. Elasticity of demand. Just another way of getting more money from us.
Airlines offered to perate a Carbon zero scheme. This won't happen now. So benefit to the environment? Nil.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Russell, i absolutely agree with everything you say!
D G Orf, most of the taxes in this country are spent on civil servants wages, and supporting illegal imigrants!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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So, I booked a flight to Munich back in the summer to depart on the 1st Feb, am I going to have to cough up a fiver before they'll let me check in? Or shall I tell them to sling their hook and see what happens?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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davidpratt15, actually I just read today that last year Illegal Imigrants cost the Government £40 Million which with arround 6,000 of them in the country works out to arround £6,700 per head.
The biggest cost to the taxpayer are all the extra administrators and accountants employed by the police, schools, hospitals etc to cope with the mountains of records and red tape that westminster now demands of theml I note that we never here of hospitals cutting the number of administrators it's always nurses etc that tend to go first.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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D G Orf, exactly, all the people that actually do any work in this country are being pushed out by the pen pushers 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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This may be an unpopular line, but what the heck. Seems to me that most people use the economy airlines to get to the slopes, and at the end of the day an extra £5 is of small consequence when youy compare the overall cost of the journey to other available methods (car/train/non-economy airlines). Judging by other threads, there is a comparatively large investment made in ski gear, lift passes, accommodation etc, and why not - we all enjoy the sport - so an extra £5 to get there is not something to get too wound up about surely? 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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It is only £5 but......the opinion that it's just a little bit, so don't worry about it, is exactly how they push these through.
However, we've now ended up with a very large tax burden because of all these 'little' things.
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| shockingmoment wrote: |
Richmond:
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how can you call this a 'stealth tax'
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Stealth: Surreptitious, Sneaky, Sly, Crafty.
Is the revenue going to be spent on 'Green' issues?
No.
As previous poster has said - people will coninue to fly. Elasticity of demand. Just another way of getting more money from us.
Airlines offered to perate a Carbon zero scheme. This won't happen now. So benefit to the environment? Nil. |
It may well be dishonest, but it is not stealthy; it was in many if not all newspapers, at least one radio prog, the TV news and is the subject of a thread on a major ski related web forum.
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davidpratt15, I'd stop reading the Daily Mail if I were you.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Don't know what's suddenly prompted the interest but they were running this story on the radio news this morning:-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6258213.stm
Some quite different approaches by the airlines.
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I have some flights booked with Ryanair in Febuary and after seeing this this morning http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6258213.stm am wondering if anybody has had any email notification from Ryanair about this? (I have also checked my junk mail) I cannot see anything on the website to allow me to pay for this?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I thought Ryan air had "announced" that they were not going to pay the government?
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Ryanair say you will not fly if you dont pay in advance but I havent had an email telling me where to pay?
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Elizabeth B, they did, so why are they trying to cancel flights if you haven't paid?
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You know it makes sense.
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O'Leary on the telly news "If you don't pay, you don't fly"
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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He's bottled it then
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Poster: A snowHead
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| D G Orf wrote: |
| davidpratt15, actually I just read today that last year Illegal Imigrants cost the Government £40 Million which with arround 6,000 of them in the country works out to arround £6,700 per head. |
6,000 illegal immigrants! Who on earth came up with that figure? This Government is so incompetent that it doesn't even know how many illegals there are in this country!
The current Government has imposed more taxes on us than any other Government in history and yet it still can't balance the books and has even managed to get rid of our gold reserves.
Back to the thread....
I heard on BBC Breakfast News this morning that the additional tax on flights is to go towards our public transport systems. Oh pleeeeeeeease. Like that is going happen when only about 15% of the road tax you pay for your car actually goes towards the upkeep of our roads.
This tax is just a way of the Government getting extra money from us and so that they can say that they are doing something about the environmental issues to try to make themselves look good.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Quote: |
Toby Nichol of Easyjet says the airline faces an extra £4.5m tax bill if passengers are not prepared to pay up but making them do so could be difficult.
He hopes passengers will be prepared to pay an extra £5 to cover the tax as a goodwill gesture.
"We will be going back to our customers and saying - the chancellor has doubled air passenger duty - how do you feel about giving us an extra fiver?" he said.
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what's the position now? I had an easyjet email about the extra payment for a flight from Bristol to Geneva I had booked for a nephew visiting. However I didn't pay, he had a bad back and was dithering about being able to come, and in the end decided not to. I have not had similar emails in respect of other flights I've booked, the next being for 5 passengers at half term. Neither does the easyjet website give me any option to pay the extra tax for that flight. The link in the earlier email was to the Bristol booking only, with a special screen for the extra payment. There doesn't seem to be any way of accessing that screen without the initial email asking for the £5.
What happens if you turn up having not paid? Will I get a begging email nearer the time?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Bump. someone who booked in advance must have travelled easyjet recently. What's the story?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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pam w, the increase in APD is for flights from 1st Feb regardless of when you booked them. EJ will come a-calling I've no doubt. There is a risk that the carrier will not let you fly unless you hve paid the increase in APD.
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brian
brian
Guest
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pam w, the new tax doesn't come into force until February 1st. So we won't find out if they try and block people from flying until then. I think easy will try and take the money at the airport. They already do this for excess baggage and won't give you the boarding card until you show them a receipt for the cash.
I see that Jet2 are just taking the money using the credit card details from the booking !
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no email recieved yet either !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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The week end before last thee seemed to be real doubt in airlines' minds whether they coul dpass the tax rise on t opre paid customers, now there seems to be an assumpton that they can. Has anything changed. According to (I think) Money Box on R4, some outfit I'd never heard of are bunging the increase on customers' CCs without the option; bit of a cheek, but i can see their point.
BMI haven't told me that they're going to charge me the extra and their web site has nothing specific. Their T&Cs aren't clear on the point.
I don't have a problem with coughing up, really; the tax is designed in part to discourage and penalise air travel and I'm the one doing the travelling, so fair dos. G.Brown apparently said that the airlines can afford to foot the bill themselves with seems supremely irrelevant.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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pam w, I've just checked again. My original email advising to follow a link and pay, has disappeared, and there's nothing on my easyjet account on the website, and nothing else that I can see. I would pay it as I don't want to risk the whole family being knocked back at the check-in by some over-zealous assistant, but as you say, without the original email, can't see how one CAN pay it
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the email I had, which I did nothing about, was for a flight in March (I read the reference wrong, it wasn't the flight this last week) and said the tax must be paid by 15 Jan. However, it is doubtful whether those flights are actually going to be used - I booked them in hope - so I am definitely not going to pay anything right now. It does seem odd that when you click on the "manage my bookings" button you don't get any information about this, or any opportunity to pay. so maybe it will be collecting buckets at the airport. We'll see. I don't object in principle to paying, but I do find the lack of transparency irritating.
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FAQ
