Airline Flight Surchage for Infants

C

cristletips

Registered User
I am always perplexed why when flying with a child under 2 on your lap, how the infants are charged as much tax as an adult occupying a seat. It is as if I am paying twice as much tax/fuel surcharge. And often it is more than the cost of their ticket!

It is obviously a money maker for the airlines and it seems so unfair to me.


Has anyone else felt this frustration? Is there any recourse for this?!!
 
No recourse. They do it because they can do it.

This is the last year I can pay a "child's price" air ticket for my eldest.
 
The airline collects the taxes which are paid to the govt.
The only tax the airline keeps is the fuel surcharge.

So not the airlines fault.
 
I heard Oasis doesn't charge anything at all for kids under 12, so if you are going to UK or Vancouver, you probably don't have to pay tax or anything extra for your kid.
 
Actually, I will take that back. I have just checked my booking info and I had to pay tax for my 4 year old but not for my 1 year old just a security service fee of HK$33 going out of Hong Kong but nothing on the way back.
 
I think Oasis is doing a lot of promotions right now because it is a new airline. They're probably swallowing a lot of those extra costs temporarily to get business up and running.
 
Who's being charged $1400?

The Cathay charge for a child under 2 with no seat on HKG-LON return should still only be just over $100.

There in a HK airport tax, no tax coming back from Heathrow and about $80 fuel surcharge.

Oasis are waving the fuel surcharges for infants.

You may want to think about whether it's worth paying the extra $100 for better service rather than travelling on a low cost airline on a long flight.

It's certainly nice to get spare nappies, jars of baby food, activity packs, plus the hosties willingness to take your baby for 10 mins if you are travelling alone and need a toilet break!
 
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I have bought Oasis tickets to fly to England next week and the taxes are clearly labeled. They advertise their fares without taxes – so when you buy a ticket for $1,000 you actually end up paying a lot more.

They list all the taxes separately so I know what they are for. I also know that the taxes from London are much bigger than the taxes from Hong Kong. Maybe it is the taxes from Canada that is making your ticket so expensive.

From Hong Kong taxes:
FUEL SURCHARGE $420
HKG PASSENGER SERVICE FEE $120
HKG SECURITY SERVICE FEE $33
TOTAL $573
(My 6 year old daughter is not charged for the Passenger Service Fee)

From England taxes:
FUEL SURCHARGE $420
UK AIR PASSENGER DUTY ECONOMY $640
UK PASSENGER SERVICE CHARGE $126
TOTAL $1,186
 
There is an enormous variation between charges to and from different airports.
A lot of airports won't charge taxes for a non fare paying infant.
Although of course they charge a fortune for everyone else.

I just checked the different charges on some tickets I currently have for my 9 mth old.
The lowest I have is $33 for HK to Singapore, which is just the HK security tax, the highest $965 for HK to Sydney which has the most hideous airport taxes in the world.. Both with Cathay.

The bottom line is no airline is going to absorb taxes, we are the ones that have to pay it.
It's worth checking the fine print before commiting to a cheap fare that sounds too good to be true.
 
I think it's made clear enough when you buy an airline ticket that you will have to pay the taxes on top. Regardless of wether it's a ticket with a big name airline, or a budget airline.

Personally I think it's about time HK had a long haul budget airline- cheaper flights ensure more people can afford to travel and that can only be a good thing. Not only that but budget airlines are competition for the big name airlines and force them to be more competitive with their prices. That can only be a good thing too.

I think it's a nice gesture for the budget airlines to not make people pay an infant surcharge.

Wether they succeed in HK or not remains to be seen, but I for one wish them all the best!
 
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