Cancelling a flight?

tea and coffee

If I cancel a "non refundable" flight, is it possible to get the tax refunded?
I vaguely remember something about this with Ryanair in the papers a few years ago in a consumer column but wonder am I getting mixed up.
Basically I booked a flight to the US (virgin atlantic) and now I can't take it. It's a cheapo fare and non changeable , non refundable etc and would be great if I could get anything back at all.

theteal

You should be able to alright but iirc in the Ryanair example they charge an admin fee that made the effort fairly pointless

tea and coffee

What if it's just one leg I'm cancelling (inbound)? Can I do that or will they only cxl the whole thing?
Tax is significant- over €500 for that leg alone.

Credit Checker Moose

You may find that the repricing to take account of your cancelled flight may just swallow up your tax refund.

L1011

The tax amount is often negligible - really unless your flight hit Canada it won't have sufficient taxes to overcome any processing fee. Canada has incredibly high aviation taxes.

e.g the tax out of Ireland is nil; UK connecting flights (as I assume this is Ireland-UK-US) is nil, and so on.

The tax, if any, is recoverable if the flight isn't taken; cancelled or not. For other posters finding this in future - be aware that not taking the outbound leg of a long-haul flight usually cancels the inbound automatically as most longhaul flights are priced using antiquated rules and discount returns.

tea and coffee

L1011 wrote: »

The tax amount is often negligible - really unless your flight hit Canada it won't have sufficient taxes to overcome any processing fee. Canada has incredibly high aviation taxes.

e.g the tax out of Ireland is nil; UK connecting flights (as I assume this is Ireland-UK-US) is nil, and so on.

The tax, if any, is recoverable if the flight isn't taken; cancelled or not. For other posters finding this in future - be aware that not taking the outbound leg of a long-haul flight usually cancels the inbound automatically as most longhaul flights are priced using antiquated rules and discount returns.

It says on the receipt that the taxes were €518 per sector.

irishgeo

tea and coffee wrote: »

L1011 wrote: »

The tax amount is often negligible - really unless your flight hit Canada it won't have sufficient taxes to overcome any processing fee. Canada has incredibly high aviation taxes.

e.g the tax out of Ireland is nil; UK connecting flights (as I assume this is Ireland-UK-US) is nil, and so on.

The tax, if any, is recoverable if the flight isn't taken; cancelled or not. For other posters finding this in future - be aware that not taking the outbound leg of a long-haul flight usually cancels the inbound automatically as most longhaul flights are priced using antiquated rules and discount returns.

It says on the receipt that the taxes were €518 per sector.

Taxes and charges maybe.

L1011

tea and coffee wrote: »

It says on the receipt that the taxes were €518 per sector.

€518 seems utterly implausible even ignoring it being a "cheapo fare". The exact fees are discoverable.

tea and coffee

Invoice attached. It was for 6 passengers. Maybe they have been too simplistic just saying "tax" but would be fantastic if it was correct

Credit Checker Moose

If you could tell us the route we might be better able to tell. It is unlikely all that is actual tax.

tea and coffee

Credit Checker Moose wrote: »

If you could tell us the route we might be better able to tell. It is unlikely all that is actual tax.

Yeah no problems. It's BFS- MCO.

L1011

€518 for 3 tickets is a lot more plausible!

US has some relatively high fees (still not a patch on Canada) - a base tax for an international passenger; a TSA levy; a customs levy and more - however as far as I remember some of them are non-refundable as they are paid to the US govt in advance of the flight regardless.

ct5amr2ig1nfhp

Taxes that are likely applicable, arrival: US, XA, XY, YC and departure: GB, UB. There are some exemptions but it's probably the GB tax that is the highest tax. From memory, that's about 80GBP base rate for a Band B destinations. NI departures used to have an exemption though, not sure if it still does for band B direct flights. Don't see mention of charges, only taxes from your screen shot, possibly includes a fuel surcharge?

Credit Checker Moose

No UK APD as flight originates in Northern Ireland. Even if transiting via LHR etc APD will not apply.

The rest of it is likely fuel surcharges and the non refundable TSA, 9/11 charges.

ct5amr2ig1nfhp

Yeah, I thought I remembered correctly that there was an exemption for NI departure for direct flights.

Credit Checker Moose wrote: »

No UK APD as flight originates in Northern Ireland. Even if transiting via LHR etc APD will not apply.

The rest of it is likely fuel surcharges and the non refundable TSA, 9/11 charges.