Southwest rips off PAX Taxes!

[kwick]

Why would a company that SHOUTS "Bags Fly Free!"

Rip-Off their passengers for the taxes that they paid?

 

[Fubijaakr]

Profit, toujours la profit!

 

[dillfer]

Why would a company that SHOUTS "Bags Fly Free!"

Rip-Off their passengers for the taxes that they paid?

How is this ripping off passengers? PAX would be paying the same no matter who kept that money. Just happens to go to the airlines now instead of the Government. Much better place for it to go anyway.

 

[Raoul Duke]

agreed

 

[Fubijaakr]

How is this ripping off passengers? PAX would be paying the same no matter who kept that money. Just happens to go to the airlines now instead of the Government. Much better place for it to go anyway.

Are you kidding? When you take a person's money under false pretenses, there is a term for that....FRAUD.

Even USAir reneged and started returning the tax money to people they collected it from.

Alaska was the only honest airline in this incident...they didn't collect the taxes as soon as the legislation lapsed.

 

[kf4amu]

God forbid the passengers pay a profit margin above the cost of travel....geez

 

[Fubijaakr]

God forbid the passengers pay a profit margin above the cost of travel....geez

No kidding. It would be nice if people would just pay what it cost to produce a product.

But collecting "taxes" that aren't on the books is bait and switch at best, out and out fraud at worst.

So much for SWA "luvving" their customers.

 

[Crash Pad]

Well played Southwest

 

[SWA/FO]

Maybe they will make more money to pay us more money. Southwest still charging for bags and seat assignment on DA Tranny.

 

[GuppyWN]

Why would a company that SHOUTS "Bags Fly Free!"

Rip-Off their passengers for the taxes that they paid?

It's OUR passengers - in case you forgot.

Gup

 

[The Prussian]

Hmmm...airline bookings were done at certain price points. How far out should airlines sell tickets at the new price, ie: without the 7.5% ticket tax, the 7.5% freq flyer miles tax, the $3.70 per segment fee, the $16.30 int'l arrival/departure tax, and the $8.20 Alaska/Hawaii to US mainland tax. And now...if they're sold at the new price, once the taxes are reinstated (next week,...next month??), do you recharge those new costs to those future passengers, or just eat the cost of the taxes? I imagine there are certain preconditions to these refunds and future ticket sales, but it does introduce a complexity to projecting accurate bookings (ie, how many bookings get cancelled, once the taxes are reinstated, and the passengers consider the cost now to be too high?)
Finally, if airlines were huge profit centers, making obscene profits, I'd probably feel differently. Sadly, that is not the case. Major percentage of ticket prices are taxes, from the above mentioned, to fuel taxes, airport fees, and TSA. IMHO, airlines could use a little help towards the bottom line.

 

[kf4amu]

I think the IRS will mandate taxes paid prior to the shutdown for travel during the dates it is shut down will need to be repaid, because that is, as you mentioned, a bait and switch. False advertising. I think every airline will refund those pretty easily.

However, the tickets being sold now SHOULD be raised higher. 7.5 percent increase in ticket prices SHOULD help the industry return a modest profit. Hell it may even allow them to start repaying some of the debt they took down during the 2008 crisis in order to survive. Good for them, trying to do the right thing and survive.

 

[SWA/FO]

Kwick forgets who he works for. Nice to bite the hand that feeds you.

 

[Luv2BFlyin]

It's OUR passengers - in case you forgot.

Gup

I guess they are "our" passengers if AAI is doing the same thing.

 

[Chairman]

I think the IRS will mandate taxes paid prior to the shutdown for travel during the dates it is shut down will need to be repaid, because that is, as you mentioned, a bait and switch. False advertising. I think every airline will refund those pretty easily.

However, the tickets being sold now SHOULD be raised higher. 7.5 percent increase in ticket prices SHOULD help the industry return a modest profit. Hell it may even allow them to start repaying some of the debt they took down during the 2008 crisis in order to survive. Good for them, trying to do the right thing and survive.

Or come back and tell the airlines they need to back pay the taxes retroactively once they refund the FAA. Tickets are cheaper than they were 30 years ago. Move along there is no story here.