My top posts for 2010 over at Boarding Area

Nearly a year ago I moved my blog from this site to Boarding Area, home to several blogs with a business and frequent flyer travel focus. I notice there are still many people reading this old site - please click here to the Boarding Area home of Musings of the Global Traveller.

The most popular posts of 2010, based on views, made in the other location are:

1. All A380 routes - all scheduled routes operated with A380 aircraft (all airlines) [continues to be updated]
2. Frequent flyer mileage expiry - mileage expiry policies for all major frequent flyer programs [continues to be updated]
3. Lifetime elite airline status - lifetime elite status qualification and benefits for all major frequent flyer programs [continues to be updated]
4. Super easy Star Alliance gold status with Aegean - by far the easiest way to top elite status with Star Alliance, and is still live
5. New Qantas first class (A380) - now 2 years old but still popular as it remains one of the better first class offerings in the air
6. A380 business class comparison Emirates, Qantas and Singapore - surprisingly more popular than my A380 first class suites comparison Emirates, Qantas and Singapore
7. HON Circle mileage run by private jet - a number of readers got this airline status (with extra special benefits) for low cost, and in great comfort
8. US tourist tax (ESTA fee) starts 8 September & already inflated
9. Frequent flyer questions on status - part of a series of posts answering questions from readers of Wendy Perrin's Perrin Post
10. bmi Diamond Club timeline for closure revealed by Lufthansa

Tax refund for flights from the Netherlands

The Netherlands removed their air passenger tax on 1 July 2009. If you bought a ticket before 1 July with contains a flight from the Netherlands for travel on or after 1 July, then you may be eligible for a refund. Note there was no tax charged for transits under 24 hours at Amsterdam.

The tax was €45 for longhaul and €11.25 for shorthaul.

If you paid the tax then you're entitled to claim a full refund from your airline or travel agent. Airlines should not be deducting a service fee to process the refund.

If you have a breakdown of taxes paid (eg on paper tickets these appear in a few lines near the bottom) look for the tax code KV.

Reminder UK Tax Increase November 2009

As announced last year UK Air Passenger Duty (APD) goes up for travel from 1 November 2009, and there will be a further increase next year. APD applies to all flight departures from UK, except for connecting international or domestic flights after an international arrival. The exemption covers transits on a single ticket within a prescribed time (a day or less in some circumstances). The exemption rule is not changing.

Until 31 October 2009 APD is £10 or £20 for "European" destinations and £40 or £80 for other destinations. The higher rate applies for premium economy, business and first class.

From 1 November 2009 APD is £11 to £55 in economy depending on country and £22 to £110 for all other classes of travel.

As it is a bit complicated I've prepared a summary (see map below). For convenience I list the economy rate of APD. For other classes of travel the Air Passenger Duty is twice the economy rate.

UK APD Zones 1 Nov 09

Map Legend:

Europe-A

Other-A

B

C

D

UK Air Passenger Duty Zones and change in APD 1 November 2009

Europe-A £10 -> £11

Other-A £20 -> £11 (NB Russia east of Urals in B)

B £20 -> £45

C £20 -> £50

D £20 -> £55

© worldmapmaker.com Travel Insurance

For more detail, continue reading.

"Europe"
Currently on the lower rate and will be in new Band A.
£10 → £11
Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark (incl Faroe Islands), Estonia, Finland (incl Aland Islands), France (incl Corsica), Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy (incl Sardinia & Sicily), Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, (FYROM) Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway (incl Svalbard), Poland, Portugal (incl the Azores & Madeira), Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain (incl Balearic & Canary Islands), Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UK (incl Channel Islands, Gibraltar & Isle of Man)

Other Europe
Currently on the higher rate and will be in new Band A. APD decreases at 1 November 2009.
£20 → £11
Belarus, Greenland, Moldova, Russia (west of Urals only), Ukraine

Northern Africa
Currently on the higher rate and will be in new Band A. APD decreases at 1 November 2009.
£20 → £11
Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Western Sahara

Midhaul and shorter longhaul
Roughly USA & Canada, most of Africa (north of Equator except those above), Middle East, Caucasus, central Asia, west Asia.
Currently on the higher rate and will be in new Band B. For some a large difference in APD compared with neighbouring countries in Band A (see underlined entries).
£20 → £45
Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Benin, Bermuda, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, DR Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia (east of Urals), St Pierre & Miquelon (France), Sao Tome & Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Togo, Turkmenistan, Uganda, UAE, USA (incl Hawaii but excl Puerto Rico), Uzbekistan, Yemen

Longhaul
Roughly Mexico, Caribbean, Central America, northern South America (above Equator plus Brazil), southern Africa (below Equator), eastern (except Taiwan) and southern Asia (except southeast).
Currently on the higher rate and will be in new Band C.
£20 → £50
Angola, Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, Ascension Island, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Bhutan, Botswana, Brazil, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Burma, Burundi, Cayman Islands, China (incl Hong Kong & Macao), Colombia, Comoros, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Laos, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Mongolia, Montserrat, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, North Korea, Panama, Puerto Rico, Reunion, Rwanda, St Barthelemy, St Helena, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, St Martin, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Swaziland, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Turks & Caicos Islands, Venezuela, Vietnam, Virgin Islands, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Longer longhaul
Roughly southern South America (below Equator except Brazil), Taiwan, southeast Asia, Oceania.
Currently on the higher rate and will be in new Band D.
£20 → £55
American Samoa, Argentina, Australia (incl Christmas Island, Cocos Islands & Norfolk Island), Bolivia, Brunei, Cambodia, Chile, Cook Islands, East Timor, Falkland Islands, Fiji, France (New Caledonia & French Polynesia), Guam, Indonesia, Kiribati, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Pitcairn Islands, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands, Taiwan, Tonga, Tristan da Cunha, Tuvalu, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna Islands

UK tax to increase significantly

UK air passenger duty (APD), the tax on passengers who fly from UK or stopover in UK, is to increase significantly from 1 November 2009 with a further large increase in 2010.

The current APD is £10/20 for intra-Europe and £40/80 for inter-continental. The first figure refers to the lowest cabin on the aircraft and the latter figure for all other classes of travel.

The rate of APD from 1 November 2009 will be distance based, and depend on the distance between London and the capital city of each country (except Russia east of the Urals has a different calculation). The new rates will vary from £11/22 for shorthaul up to £55/110 for long haul.

Other than a couple of destinations in northern Africa, every APD will go up to a varying extent, with the biggest increases (whether measured by £ or %) for longhaul. APD for business class only airlines will change from the lower rate to the higher rate.

In 2010 the APD goes up by more, with rates varying from £12/24 for shorthaul up to £85/170 for longhaul. Ouch.

The new tax has a longer lead in time than in the past. The last change in APD gave only 2 months notice and caused significant problems for airlines. This time we get over 11 months notice. Airlines should make the changes to their systems fairly quickly so as not to be out of pocket and minimise the disruption at check-in. Those who book now, until the system changes are made, for travel after 1 November may be hit up at check in to pay the tax shortfall.

As with the current system, the calculation is based on ultimate destination not necessarily the destination of the first flight. So you can't reduce the taxes by flying from UK to far-flung destinations via Paris, Frankfurt or Amsterdam - unless you break the travel into 2 or more tickets.

For those interested in the detail, check out the UK pre-budget report sub-section on APD.

With the airline and tourism industries in crisis mode, and a major downturn in financial services (business travel is a very significant source of revenue for airlines flying from or to UK due to the size of the London financial centre), it seems an odd time to be socking the travelling public.

On pages 18-21 of the main pre-budget report press release, further taxes for travellers are signalled with the intention for aviation to be included in EU emissions trading scheme from 2012.

Update on the UK Air Passenger Duty (APD) tax rise

I earlier posted about the doubling of UK's Air Passenger Duty (APD) tax effective 1 February 2007, and the retrospectivity of it. The airlines have now had time to consider how they will deal with the practical problem of payment of the higher taxes for those who had already ticketed when the increase was announced for flights on or after 1 February 2007.

The BBC reports on the decisions of some UK airlines:

• Ryanair has advised passengers must pay the increase by the day before departure - there will be no facility to pay at the airport and they won't bear the cost (booo)
• Jet2 will just take the money off passenger's credit cards (wonder how many disputed payments the credit card companies will get from that nastiness?)
• British Airways has advised they will bear the cost and not attempt to collect it (presumably the costs of collection are excessive and besides this is a chance for some good PR after a string of recent bad publicity)
• Easyjet didn't advise what they intend doing - I hope they make up their mind soon!

With such diverging approaches, one thing we can count on is confusion and chaos at the UK airports come 1 February. It is not yet too late for the UK government to stop the nonsense by removing the retrospectivity of the tax increase.

UK travel woes

In the past year air travel to/from/in the UK has gotten harder (and in many other places too). We have seen and experienced:

• the August bomb plot, and the resulting no liquids rules
• carry-on restrictions - none at all in the immediate aftermath of the bomb plot, and now limited to 1 small piece with no extra personal items
• massive delays at security everywhere

But it looks like it will be getting worse next year, not better. Here are just a few things coming in the next few months:

1. From December 5th British Airways changed it's seat selection policy. There is confusion on how it is working - apparently computer programming doesn't yet match the stated policy, but it appears losers are those flying business class and non-BA One World elites who have less access to pre-selecting seats than before. Some discussion on Flyer Talk here.
2. British Airways will be limiting the weight of each piece of checked baggage to 50lbs/23kgs. With the low limit on carry-on luggage, expect more passengers to be hit up for excess bag charges (and to buy a new bag at the airport) - a whopping £120 per longhaul flight. This change was proposed for earlier this year but was cancelled after the bomb scare, but will now occur from 1 February 2007.
3. As previously posted, Air Passenger Duty (APD) will double from 1 February 2007 to a maximum of £80 per longhaul departure. Unfortunately this increase will be retrospective, applying based on date of travel not date ticketed - so expect big queues as airlines attempt to recover the extra taxes at check in.
4. A discussion on Flyer Talk on a threatened British Airways cabin crew strike, possibly next February.

The combined effect of all these changes is to make air travel through UK much more unpleasant, especially relative to continental Europe. I think it is time to start learning the airport tips and tricks for Paris CDG, Amsterdam and Frankfurt; and forget about London LHR.