BA Airfare Taxes

[jaqrab]

While booking a flight to PE from Joburg, and trying to use my nice 35% discount that my Vitality Diamond status allows, I noticed an odd anomaly. Apparently Kulula/British Airways gets charged much higher taxes & fees than SAA.

 

Vitality Diamond status gives you a handy 35% discount on local flights booked through Kulula. The small print tells you that "The saving applies to the cost of the ticket only and excludes airport taxes."

 

For SAA the ticket cost accounts for 82% of the total fare, and an 18% tax hit. Sounds fair.

 

Amazingly in the Kulula/British Airways case the ticket cost accounts for 20% of the total fare, and a massive 80% tax. With the result that my 35% discount is applied to only 20% of the total fare, effectively reducing the 35% discount to around 7%

 

Seems to me there's a bit of good old fashioned creative accounting going on

 

[carbon29er]

I would say you have found a bug.  Every time I have used Vitality the discount has been on the whole ticket including taxes which were no more than SAA's.

 

In addition on Vitality I was able to use miles to pay for the entire ticket, unlike Voyager were you have to use cash for the taxes.

[carbon29er]

Just tried a booking:

[VicanZA]

Ive had the same experience with international flights was able to fly Air France at a cheaper rate than the BA rate with my 30% discount, the hotel needing 3 weeks notice and some require the booking to include a week day has meant that i haven't been able to use the benefit at all.

 

Currently the gym discount is the only 1 I am really using. 

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

I would say you have found a bug. Every time I have used Vitality the discount has been on the whole ticket including taxes which were no more than SAA's.

 

In addition on Vitality I was able to use miles to pay for the entire ticket, unlike Voyager were you have to use cash for the taxes.

Nope. Discount only applies to the base fare. The easiest way if seeing if this is a "con" is to try and book the ticket through kulula without using your vitality details. I have a feeling that it's a kulula thing rather than a vitality thing...

[slabs]

Always been like that - no discounts on taxes. Similar to using any miles on other programs, you still pay the taxes

[Dexter-morgan]

Another way they conned me was through the Pick n pay smart shopper card, at first I got 8 x my pick n pay spend, now there there is some type of ratio between your total spend and pick n pay spend and there is nothing you can do because they say terms and conditions can change at any time, which you sign for when you open the account.

[carbon29er]

R 546.63 is not 35% of R 1,370.

 

But it's also not 35% of the total fare including taxes in my test booking above.

 

But duties and taxes of R 4,490 for 2 tickets is the bug. Way out of line.

[GLuvsMtb]

R 546.63 is not 35% of R 1,370.

 

But it's also not 35% of the total fare including taxes in my test booking above.

 

But duties and taxes of R 4,490 for 2 tickets is the bug. Way out of line.

It is 40%. Are you not in the 40% bracket?

[Jigghead]

Looks like an error, I just booked flights for next week and my discount was on the ticket, not taxes, but those taxes are crazy.

 

Taxes are levied by the airports etc. and not by the airline. I don't think Discovery or anyone else has any agreements with the airport owners.

[jonnow]

Are the airport taxes not high due to the airport being so small and not a lot of flights in and out?  I know that when i went down, it cost huge money and, if it was not for a wedding, we would n't have gone.  It's crazy money 

[HowellingWulf]

The biggest con for me is the buggers cancelling the carry-over points as of this year. Used to be easy to maintain Diamond status. This is the third year I'm on Diamond so after this year there is no need for me to jump through all the hoops to maintain Diamond status. That is until they cancelled all the carry over points. Have to all the additional crap that now that was never required in the past.

[dracs]

Your rant should be at the airline (BA) not Discovery.  Book the same flight without going via Discovery and you will see.  http://www.britishairways.com/travel/home/public/en_za

 

 

Kulula no longer fly to PE, I found its not worth using your discovery miles for that leg - the flights are actually BA (even though you book through the Kulula portal) and as you found the taxes are so high that the discount is irrelevant.  Rather just search for the cheapest flight.  On the other routes where Kulula themselves fly you will see its not too bad (more like the CTN / JHB example above).

[Blokman]

The flights look to cheap and the taxes too high. Mistake somewhere. R1160 for two people return sounds dirt cheap . R290 per seat.

 

Taxes not part of discount. My wife is not on Vitality and pays normal fare so I'm always calculating what I've saved.

Heading is a bit misleading if I may say.

 

Edit : Dracs, just seen your post. Am I understanding this correctly. How do you get a plane in the air for R290 per person ?

[N-I-N-J-A]

You'll see that the high taxes is because it is a BA flight, if you choose Kulula it will be cheaper.

[dracs]

The flights look to cheap and the taxes too high. Mistake somewhere. R1160 for two people return sounds dirt cheap . R290 per seat.

 

Taxes not part of discount. My wife is not on Vitality and pays normal fare so I'm always calculating what I've saved.

Heading is a bit misleading if I may say.

 

I fly PE often and the BA flights on that route always show low fare and high taxes.  I agree its BS but it doesn't seem to be a mistake in that it is a conscious decision by the airline.