I think there is something wrong with airlines, their policies, and their price making. Here is one example. I was looking for the cheapest way to get from Larnaca, Cyprus to Athens, Greece on Saturday, September 25th, 2010. One of the lowest prices was offered by Aegean Airlines – 42 EUR for a one-way ticket. That sounds awesome, doesn’t it? Well, apparently that’s not the final price. The final price with all the taxes and such came up to 156.16 EUR.
What’s the point of listing the price, on top of which you’ll have to pay the “tax” and “fee”, and which will be almost doubled by those extras?
pamediakopes.gr
Olympic Airways
Sat 25 Sep
11:30- 13:10 LCA- ATH
Ticket: €36
Taxes: €27.54
Service Charge: €2
Total: €65.54
I always use skyscanner.net as a starting point and reference. In this case, the price on the landing site (pamediakopes.gr) is even less than what the skyscanner engine came up with ;-)
Thanks a lot for the tip, Chris. While the price is way better, the problem with the ticket price is the same – 65 EUR instead of the mentioned 36 EUR. Again, double from the advertised.
Airlines don't include taxes because taxes change frequently. They don't take any taxes, the airport takes them.
And don't forget that we have two brand new airports in Cyprus and the government paid 0 (zero) euro for them. Now the airport company has to make some profit.
I understand all that. My point was more from the customer point of view. If I am told the price of something is so much, I'd expect to pay so much for it. I understand some things are not included commonly, like a VAT or something. But having the final price almost twice as large as the one I was told, that's a bit too much I think.