News and notes from around the interweb:
- Airlines that failed in 2015
- How to find your British Airways confirmation number from an American AAdvantage award booking without calling
- Air India considering resuming Washington Dulles service
- Having sold his website to Internet Brands (which owns Flyertalk.com and FrugalTravelGuy.com) a few years ago, Tim Winship will be leaving FrequentFlier.com at the end of the year.
- A go-kart powered by a Boeing jet engine could be yours on Craigslist
- Delta was once a very conservatively-run airline. Since their post-bankruptcy merger with Northwest they’ve been anything but. They’ve made a lot of dumb moves, but they’ve experimented aggressively on their way to becoming an industry leader with outstanding operational performance and a reasonable inflight product.
- Airline checked baggage fees surpassed $1 billion in the 3rd quarter. A lot of the gain here is really tax arbitrage.
- Airlines ranked… by their craft beer offerings.
- EVA Air makes the wait at baggage claim so much better.
I’ve always wanted to try the Sweetwater beer that DL supposedly has but never had it offered on any of my flights.
Gary, I’ve always been curious if airlines also escape taxes on fuel/non-fuel surcharges. Is that true?
@Gaurav – which taxes? there aren’t any fuel surcharges on US domestic tickets, and the 7.5% US excise tax only applies to domestic airfare
Gary, Thanks for responding. I’m not up on the full tax structure on international tickets. Just curious if there is a tax benefit for airlines structuring their tickets with large surcharges.
Gary,
The article doesn’t even mention Hawaiian Airlines as serving the best beer, which no other airline I’ve flown can compare to. They serve a Maui Brewing beers…
@Gaurav – I don’t think there’s a tax benefit, aside from imposing a fee on award tickets fuel surcharges:
1. are convenient for raising and lowering all fares in a market by a defined amount in one shot rather than refiling all fares
2. imposing increases on negotiated fares that are structured as “% off fare” or “fixed fare+surcharges”