When we arrived at the Hertz rental counter, we were told there was an additional tax of about $55. I paid the additional tax at checkout, expecting to be reimbursed from Hotels.com.
I’ve written two emails to Hotels.com, but both have gone unanswered. When I called the company, a representative told me the $55 charge was a “deposit” that would be returned to me. But a call to Hertz confirmed it was a tax and no refund was due.
[continue]
Note: You’ve probably noticed two things about today’s post. 1) It wasn’t available this morning; and 2) We’re back to Disqus 2012. The two are not related. We had server problems this morning. Disqus removed the ability to view comments on mobile from the “old” version, so we were forced to upgrade. (I am very unhappy with Disqus, but feel I have no choice.)
What’s an immigration stamp worth? If you said $61.55, you must know Nancy Bestor. She’s been fighting with her credit card over a tax refund after a recent trip to Italy, and she wants me to help.
[continue]
Question: Last year I settled my mortgage debt with Fifth Third Bank here in Ohio. After a short sale of the house, I had a deficiency balance of more than $50,000, but through a collection agency, I settled for a $10,000 lump sum payment.
[continue]
To say that air travelers spend as much time complaining about fees and surcharges as they do flying might not be much of an exaggeration. And now the airline industry wants you to add another complaint to that list: taxes.
[continue]
How far will an airline go to make an extra buck? Fudge a few numbers on their taxes, maybe?
[continue]
Rochelle Peachey is no stranger to high taxes and fees on airline tickets. A frequent flier between Miami and London, she routinely sees government charges that double the price of her ticket.
Not when she flies domestically, though. Here, taxes add about 20 percent to the cost of a fare.
But all that might be about to change. The Obama administration’s deficit-reduction plan includes a new mandatory $100 surcharge per flight for air traffic control services, which airlines would pay directly to the Federal Aviation Administration. The fee, however, would almost certainly be passed along to customers. The plan also raises the passenger security tax from $2.50 to $5 per non-stop flight, and eventually to $7.50.
[continue]
Departure taxes are the final “gotcha” when you’re flying. Just as you’re getting ready to board a flight back home someone asks you for money, and threatens to deny you boarding if you can’t cough up the cash.
Fortunately, most departure taxes are already built into the airfare. For example, when I visited St. Lucia in 1993, I was told that if I didn’t come up with the money, I couldn’t fly back to New York. I had to stop by an ATM and pay up. But last month when I flew from St. Lucia to Miami, the $26 departure tax was included in my airfare.
Eduardo Castresana wasn’t so lucky on his recent trip to Peru. The country’s departure tax — about $6 — should have been included in the TACA airfare he purchased through Orbitz. He says for some reason, it wasn’t.
[continue]
