alechi

Simple question?
My tickets are supposedly non-refundable; but what about the airport taxes? If you don't take the flight for whatever reason- how can they still justify charging you taxes??? Why aren't the taxes refundable?

heretoday

They can be refunded, but just try getting your airline to do that! If you booked through a TA they can do it for you. Mine did.

BeachBoi

heretoday...You mean you had the TA refund the taxes attached to a non refundable ticket?

P_M

That's a really interesting question and it makes sense that the taxes s/b refunded. But heretoday, I'm also curious as to how a TA can help.

AAFrequentFlyer

It's a fine line IMHO, but I don't think you should get your taxes back and here is why.

Let's say you bought an item in a store, knowing that it's not refundable. Just because you ended up not using it, would you expect the sales taxes refunded?

well, in many ways the above scenario is exactly the same when applied to non-refundable airline tickets. Just because you did not use the service at the end of the day, the airline still (we hope) had to pay the government for something they sold and collected taxes on. On a fully refundable ticket, the idea is, and I believe IRS agrees with it, is that the service is not tax collectable until it's provided. On a non-refundable ticket, the service is provided as soon as the ticket is sold.

Whether they did or not pay the government is a good question, but knowing governments and their tax collection ability, I'm very confident that the airline did, otherwise we may be hearing of a huge tax evasion arrests soon....

AAFrequentFlyer

I meant to say,

just because you bought a non returnable item in a store and ended up not using it......

TheWeasel

I don't believe we're talking about sales tax here. The fees/taxes are per passenger, per takeoff/landing, so I would guess/assume (perhaps incorrectly) that such fees/taxes are not paid until the flight has taken place. Otherwise, the airline would potentially be overpaying for passengers who never made their flights.

I understand the refundable vs. non-refundable idea, but I don't entirely agree with it because non-refundable tickets are not always used. I would assume the airlines try to exploit that if they can.

It's to clearly to the airlines' benefit to pay the taxes/fees post-flight, rather than as flights are purchased. That way, if they have a flight that is full, and 2 people don't show up, they don't pay taxes on those 2 people, but keep the taxes unless the passengers ask for a refund. It would be a good way to pad the bottom line a bit.

Of course, this presumes that airlines actually are willing to do such a refund, and that the gov't allows them to pay taxes only on the passengers who are on board, rather than everyone who's purchased a ticket.

AAFrequentFlyer

Read my post again.

All I said was that the government(s) may have different rules for non-refundable tickets. Perhaps they look at the tickets as a done deal. Whether one flies on the ticket is another story, but since the airline is NOT returning money for the ticket, then?

I hope that sometime soon we get a tax attorney/accountant to chime in. My theory was just that, my theory, and I could be totally wrong. I'm not a tax expert.

P_M

Well, if you are ever faced with this situation, it wouldn't hurt to ask the airline. The worst that can happen is they will say no.

TheWeasel

"My theory was just that, my theory, and I could be totally wrong. I'm not a tax expert. "

Nor am I. I wasn't attacking or anything, just discussing and thinking out loud (or at least, thinking on my keyboard).

I think this may be a case of the airlines not having to refund the taxes unless asked, and they don't go out of their way to let anyone know about it. Or I could be wrong and your theory about when the tax is paid could be right. It would be kinda nice to know for curiosity's sake.

BeachBoi

The purpose of my question to heretoday...Why would you even want a refund of the taxes on a nonrefundable ticket you didnt use/had to cancel?The experts estimate that just 2% of tickets issued actually go totally unused.So when you buy a non refundable ticket, in most cases you have a year from original date of issue to reissue the ticket and take your trip.Yes, you pay a change fee.So lets say you get the taxes on your original ticket refunded.When you are ready to use the ticket, you have to pay the taxes on the reissued ticket.How much interest can you accrue on $34 worth of taxes in 11 months!! It isnt practicable.Now, here is one of my theories....If you approached 100 ticket agents and asked them if taxes are refundable,I think you would get 100% "NO"....I read a Christopher Elliott article (of course cant find it now!) and he actually asked several airlines this very question.Some woouldnt even talk about taxes....The taxes on the 2% unused non refundable tickets out there is...Free Money to the airlines....Of course they aren't going to talk about it!And, just as naturally, if you want your money back, you are going to have to fight for it.

clevelandbrown

Continental's CofC specifically states that taxes and fees will not be refunded. I don't know if this has been challenged; it would seem that if they have collected a facility charge from you, but you have not used the facility, they would have no obligation to pay the facility charge and should refund it to you, but who is going to go to court over such paltry sums.

I suspect that, if you get a voucher for future use, in the amount of what you paid (including taxes and charges) less the cancellation penalty, when you go ahead and us that voucher, they will charge you both the fare and taxes on your new ticket, just because it is simpler for them. Double taxation is not unknown in the American way of doing things.

AAFrequentFlyer

<b>Clevelandbrown</b>,

actually AA does not give you a voucher for a non-refundable ticket. The value of the old ticket minus the change fee charge is kept in the computers with the old ticket number and when you're ready to use it they just apply it to the new ticket, and believe it or not, they won't charge taxes on the new ticket, as long as the value of the new ticket is less than the credit from the old ticket. If it's the other way around then they charge taxes just for the difference.

rkkwan

Both the tax and fare from the original ticket are applied to the voucher, which can be used to &quot;pay for&quot; the new ticket. So, no double taxation there on CO.

heretoday

My company purchased me a international flight starting out on Northwest (we rarely use them) and on to other carriers throughout Europe. The meetings were cancelled and not to be resechduled. Northwest, for some reason, would not allow me to use that ticket for a inter USA one. I asked our TA if any of it was refundable. She said the taxes were and refunded those. On follow up with her she did say that NW didn't like it but could not justify why they wouldn't refund them and allowed the refund to go through. She also refunded the fuel surchages since I didn't use any fuel. Something was better than nothing in this case.