Departure Tax To Be Included In Tickets As Of Feb. 1

[Soju]

I heard from someone booking a ticket on Thai AirAsia that the departure tax will not be paid separately as of February 1, 2007, but rather included in the price of the ticket. I went to their website and made a dummy booking to confirm this.

Up to 31st Jan 2007 Thailand Airport Tax for International destinations is payable to the Airport Authorities in Thailand upon departure.

International departures from 01st Feb 2007 onwards. the Airport Tax will be included in the Total Amount Due payable when a booking is made via any of our booking channels. Bookings made as of 4th September 2006 for 01 Feb 2007 onward travel, the Airport Tax has been included in the Total Amount Due. There are no changes for the payment and collection for domestic departures as the Airport Tax has always been included in the Total Amount Due.

I'm guessing all airlines will be doing the same, but don't have confirmation of this. Also I believe February 1 is the date of the increase in the departure tax from 500 THB to 700 THB.

[The Coder]

This is excellent news. No more hidden charges, no more people caught with their pants down leaving the country without enough cash on hand, and make navigating through the airport more efficient for all.

This is a good step. Now when will Air Asia and other thai carriers stop the silliness of quoting low fares on their web site, but when you try to purchase only then tack on fuel surchages, taxes, and other stuff. You just have no idea how much the real cost will be unless wading most of the way through the purchase process which is a rather annoying and unnecessary thing. If anything I would think it would put off people rather than drumming up sales.

[onzestan]

This is excellent news. No more hidden charges, no more people caught with their pants down leaving the country without enough cash on hand, and make navigating through the airport more efficient for all.

This is a good step. Now when will Air Asia and other thai carriers stop the silliness of quoting low fares on their web site, but when you try to purchase only then tack on fuel surchages, taxes, and other stuff. You just have no idea how much the real cost will be unless wading most of the way through the purchase process which is a rather annoying and unnecessary thing. If anything I would think it would put off people rather than drumming up sales.

Good news indeed. lets just hope the airlines and/or travelagents do not overcharge and that we pay 700 baht only.

As for the quoting low fares it is not only the thai carriers but also travelagents as Chawla Travel and Massic travel just to name a few who quote low fares.

Onzestan

[marshbags]

This is excellent news. No more hidden charges, no more people caught with their pants down leaving the country without enough cash on hand, and make navigating through the airport more efficient for all.

This is a good step. Now when will Air Asia and other thai carriers stop the silliness of quoting low fares on their web site, but when you try to purchase only then tack on fuel surchages, taxes, and other stuff. You just have no idea how much the real cost will be unless wading most of the way through the purchase process which is a rather annoying and unnecessary thing. If anything I would think it would put off people rather than drumming up sales.

Is this a 2 way deal out of curiousity, Soju ?

eg. Inclusive on tickets purchased in other countries.

I agree it,s a great idea and should halt a lot of embarrassment on those who spent all in the name of having an enjoyable time without thinking they would be stumped with the 500 baht / 700baht

dep. tax.

marshbags

[gburns57au]

If you buy a return ticket to Oz in Thailand then the Oz departure tax is included in the price.

They will always qoute the price before the added taxes....they do the same here...you just have to ask when enquiring "what is the total price including taxes"...they are loathe to do this in the first instance as the taxes may change.

But it is a step forward and well overdue...

[Soju]

Is this a 2 way deal out of curiousity, Soju ?

eg. Inclusive on tickets purchased in other countries.

I agree it,s a great idea and should halt a lot of embarrassment on those who spent all in the name of having an enjoyable time without thinking they would be stumped with the 500 baht / 700baht

dep. tax.

marshbags

I have no idea really as I only know what I read on AirAsia's website and quoted in my post. But if they had some tickets including the tax and others not, it would be very hard to manage departures and a lot of mistakes could be made. So I'm assuming all airlines from all countries will do the same and collect the tax as part of the ticket, just like is done at most major airports around the world. Though certainly they'll be an overlap period of time where advance tickets were purchased without the tax and it will still need to be collected even though newly purchased tickets will have it included.

[zink]

I wonder if I can avoid paying this passenger fee altogether (I have already paid ticket for a flight that departs from Bangkok after 1st February).

About misleading advertisement: in many countries it's illegal to advertise partial price of flights. Thus a total price including various fees (like aircraft fee, airport fee, fuel fee, crew fee, possible reservation fee) must be included in advertisement. I hope also Thailand will adopt this practice.

[Paul3456]

I noticed the 700 baht departure tax charge on the Air Asia ticket that I purchased a few days ago for travel in mid-February '07.

My question is: I will be arriving BKK at about midnight on Japan Airlines and was planning to stay airside and catch the 7 am flight to Phnom Penh. I will only have carry-on luggage.

Is there a way to get the 700 baht refunded due to the fact that I will be in-transit and shouldn't have to pay the departure tax?

[mosquitoman]

This is excellent news. No more hidden charges, no more people caught with their pants down leaving the country without enough cash on hand, and make navigating through the airport more efficient for all.

This is a good step. Now when will Air Asia and other thai carriers stop the silliness of quoting low fares on their web site, but when you try to purchase only then tack on fuel surchages, taxes, and other stuff. You just have no idea how much the real cost will be unless wading most of the way through the purchase process which is a rather annoying and unnecessary thing. If anything I would think it would put off people rather than drumming up sales.

Agreed on all points,

[simcity]

many officials must not be appy with this desision , it was a good help yourself kitty to have !

[Totster]

I noticed the 700 baht departure tax charge on the Air Asia ticket that I purchased a few days ago for travel in mid-February '07.

My question is: I will be arriving BKK at about midnight on Japan Airlines and was planning to stay airside and catch the 7 am flight to Phnom Penh. I will only have carry-on luggage.

Is there a way to get the 700 baht refunded due to the fact that I will be in-transit and shouldn't have to pay the departure tax?

I would imagine the "Depature Tax" becomes an "Airport Tax"..

This is pretty much confirmed in the quote by the OP

Up to 31st Jan 2007 Thailand Airport Tax for International destinations is payable to the Airport Authorities in Thailand upon departure.

International departures from 01st Feb 2007 onwards. the Airport Tax will be included in the Total Amount Due payable when a booking is made via any of our booking channels. Bookings made as of 4th September 2006 for 01 Feb 2007 onward travel, the Airport Tax has been included in the Total Amount Due. There are no changes for the payment and collection for domestic departures as the Airport Tax has always been included in the Total Amount Due.

totster

[Soju]

I would imagine the "Depature Tax" becomes an "Airport Tax"..

In all airports that I've seen, it is a departure tax and not an airport tax, regardless of what terminology is used. So if you were just transiting, using a single ticket on one airline, you don't pay the tax. For example I often have a stopover in Hong Kong, but I've never paid any tax to my knowledge. Often you don't know if you've paid the tax or not as it's hidden in the ticket and you have to ask to find out what the taxes are. But when I buy a ticket that goes direct without stopping in HKG, it's the exact same price. If you're changing airlines, then I imagine you'll have no choice but to pay it, and it would be up to your departing airline to decide if they want to make some procedure to refund you the tax. Being BKK is such of hub for transit passengers, it'll be interesting to see what the airlines do about this.

[fxm88]

Well, I'd agree it's a bit ludicrous to publish a fare of 333 baht then tack on the taxes and fees that triples that price. Especially the inane fuel surcharge!

However, I just spent a really irritating week trying to find cheap tickets back to the States. I didn't much care about what days I was flying, just the price and time spent in the air. I simply could not find any (real) system that allowed flexible date searching on international flights. The only explanation I could find was at http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/TravelQA/Bo...29/Default.aspx which suggests:

"Q. Why are International fares no longer in Travelocity's flex search feature?

A. Travelocity used to have the best flexible date search capabilities in the online travel industry. Then, mysteriously, United Airlines' fares disappeared from searches (repeated attempts to find out why United pulled its fare have failed). Now, international fares are gone.

From what we can gather, the US Department of Transportation is to blame. They asked that Travelocity include those often hefty fuel surcharges in their international fare results; but Travelocity simply doesn't have the technology to do this, since these and other taxes and surcharges are calculated when exact dates are chosen by the consumer. Although well-intentioned, in our opinion this DOT requirement is a disaster for the consumer. Travelocity, which runs on the Sabre fare reservation system (global distribution system, or GDS, in airline speak) was the last booking engine that provided international fares in truly flexible date searches (that is, searches within a 330 day window, as opposed to a 3 day or 30 day window)."

Bullsh!t or not? I don't know. But there must be some reason this feature doesn't exist. (BTW, the closest I could find was http://matrix.itasoftware.com but when I finally wound up on e.g. orbitz.com I'd consistently get a message like this:

"We're sorry. Due to changes in airline availability, the fare for your selected trip is no longer available. We have adjusted the fares for all affected flights. The fare for your selected trip is now $ XXXX total. See below. (Message 1048)"

So there you go.)

[Soju]

Well, I'd agree it's a bit ludicrous to publish a fare of 333 baht then tack on the taxes and fees that triples that price. Especially the inane fuel surcharge!

I'd also like to see the full charge easily without having to go through many steps, but I'd also like to see the basic fare without all the add-ons. When comparing basic fares it gives you a clearer picture when comparing one airfare to another.

[samran]

you blokes obviously haven't been to the UK, where 99 pence fares turn into 33 pounds after all the taxes and charges have been added.

Semantics aside, whatevery you want to call it, you will be charged for using the airport. Full stop. That was the downside of the manual system, as you couldn't charge transiting passangers.

Now that the powers have be have pulled the heads out of their <deleted>, this can happenn now. Which is good.