Even better. Simply skip Britain and go to Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia, Poland, Slovakia or Spain for vacation. Learn a new language (or at least bits of it) in the bargain!
2
I feel Blinder is way off base. I travel to the UK on vacation once a year and travel to other European countries. Avoiding the $100 leave tax by spending a night at the Renaissance St. Pancras? Cost? EuroStar to Brussels or Paris? Cost for ticket plus extra meals plus extra night? All major destinations have taxes/or other costs built in. I believe in paying my fair share. Avoiding taxes is a goal of many and has lead, in my opinion, to many of our USA problems including lack of public transportation, lack of universal healthcare, sorry state of infrastructure. In the UK, rail, coach, underground or overground is not perfect but it is convenient and cost effective. Museums and many other sights are free. Public parks abound. Reasonable prices for theatres such as the Globe can be found. Sorry, but Mr. Blinder needs to rethink this.
14
@Ruth A Libby You make some good points...the place where these taxes are most apparent, and most painful, as pointed out by other commenters, is when you travel on award tickets (free, or nominal charges expected) and the cost of landing in, or even passing through the London airports is 300-400 somehow. For a couple, that's the price of one of our tickets. Try to land or change in Madrid, Paris, Brussels, etc., instead, even without the extra sightseeing.
2
@Ruth A Libby
Thank you for speaking for me!
I can't agree more with you:"Avoiding taxes is a goal of many and has lead, in my opinion, to many of our USA problems including lack of public transportation, lack of universal healthcare, sorry state of infrastructure. In the UK, rail, coach, underground or overground is not perfect but it is convenient and cost effective. Museums and many other sights are free."
Bravo!
2
Thanks for a great article -- and great comments too.
If I remember correctly (from 20 years ago) Eurostar is a different operating company than the French railways, SNCF... so you're less likely to be stranded by a strike in France on your way to, say, Brussels. True?
If you're flying through French airspace, without landing, could a strike by air traffic controllers block your flight?
1
I recently returned from a 9 day visit to New York and enjoyed many of its museums (Met, MoMA, Whitney etc). At each of these museums the entry was around an eye-watering $25 per adult. I kept on saying to my husband: no wonder Americans love coming to London...all our museums are free of charge.
Friends, instead of the hassle and cost of a Eurostar train ticket, the inconvenience of luggage storage, the effort of hunting down a meal, and even possibly the expense of an overnight hotel stay, why not spend another day visiting more of our world-class museums for free? That will cover the cost of this flight tax which honestly is not so unreasonable in the big scheme of things.
20
The Tate is free? When?
1
@Joe Lynch
The Tate is free...always, if you want to view the permanent collection. Or I should say "the Tates are free" because three of the four are free (Tate Britain, Tate Modern, and Tate Liverpool, but not Tate St. Ives). There are, however, charges for the bigger temporary exhibitions.
2
A writer from the NYT thanks we should avoid paying taxes?
4
Couple of thoughts. Paris is lovely but don't plan on a train to get you there as planned. Strikes are a regular routine year after year. Yes there are work arounds, just don't make a tight connection from train to plane.
There are direct flights to San Francisco from Dublin as well.
Dublin and Paris both deserve more visiting time than just catching a sight before catching your plane...
If you're hoping to do your Global Entry interview when returning to the U.S. just know that the "Pre-customs clearance" at Dublin, disqualifies you for the re-entry interview upon arrival.
4
I'm not sure I understand the complaint here. I often book flights between my home in Europe (not the UK) and various destinations in the US. Most of the time, British Airways through London is the lowest-cost solution. Does this tax apply only if the UK is the destination or starting point?
2
Right? If London is the cheapest flight from US to Europe, tax or no tax, then I'm flying to London and taking another flight to my final destination. I've done this multiple times.
5
@NY Skeptic
If you are connecting through London from your home in Europe to the US on one ticket, the tax would not apply.
4
I have a great idea skip England altogether fly to Brussels or Barcelona direct sounds a lot easier than what Mr Blinder is suggesting.
1
What about taking the Queen Mary 2 to avoid paying the tax? :)
15
Another benefit of flying to Dublin before going back to the US is that you can clear US passport control in Dublin and skip the lines in the States. It saves a huge amount of time because you can just grab your luggage and go when you arrive.
5
Those passport lines in Dublin were a nightmare last year when we flew out. There must have been hundreds of people and we nearly missed our flight. Global Entry got me nowhere fast.
3
I flew into Dublin a few weeks ago from London and the flight was actually quicker than passing through immigration. The line my wife and I experienced was clearly the longest we had experienced in Europe.
But the wait was more than worth it, we loved Dublin.
2
How cheap do you have to be to worry about this non issue?
It’s part of what traveling costs.
20
@Non Chi-Comm
It is not about being cheap It is about getting additional value for the monies you spend. Pay $$ to Britain (no personal value) or get to visit Paris (personal value) for the same $$?
7
Good article to flag the high tax/fee cost of flying out of Britain/London. Yes, these taxes are embedded the cost of your ticket so being forewarned you might consider alternatives such a taking the train to Paris.
In actuality the taxes are more complicated than the article mentions. If you are flying into London you will pay them in full, if you return to the US on your same itinerary you will pay them x2. But if you had two one way tickets you will pay full tax into but much less out-of. So that is an alternative also.
On the other hand, if you are happy with the price of your ticket and aren't motivated to spend time in another country like France (air traffic controller strikes) or Belgium go for London.
The extent of the taxes and other charges are most apparent on mileage awards. Sometimes this has been so high that buying a ticket to another country would be cheaper than a "free" ticket on British Air with the fees.
7
@Bruna
This tax is a departure tax from the UK. You do not pay it entering Britain. The taxes are different in each direction because of different US/UK taxes. If you had two separate tickets or one round trip ticket the total in taxes would be the same.
3
This presumes you're not flying British Airways. If you are, you've no choice but to fly from London for the long-haul.
1
This article would make more sense if the cost of taxes when flying from London to the states was accurately stated. In my experience they can be as high as $600 per person. Now for that savings it would be worth taking the train and flying out of another city.
7
Dublin also has direct flights to Bradley Airport in Hartford, CT - a very civilized and mostly uncrowded smaller airport. Bradley is about an hour and 20 minutes from Boston and just over two hours from mid-town Manhattan. It serves Europe via Are Lingus and Norwegian Airlines. Oh, and by the way, most people in Ireland would prefer that their country not be referred to as one of the British Isles.
15
Most flight to the US from Brussels leave around 10 -11 am. Coming from London on the Eurostar would require spending an extra night in Brussels before flying to the US. Brussels is a great place to eat and to visit but not a place to save money. Same for Paris. This article is misleading because you might save the tax money in Britain only to spend it on the eurostar, hotels, restaurants and transportation in continental Europe.
16
Direct Eurostar Trains from London to Amsterdam started in April. There is no need to transfer trains in Brussels anymore.
https://www.seat61.com/trains-and-routes/direct-eurostar-london-to-amste...
8
Tax or no tax, there is no fun in any London Airport. You walk for miles, crowded and dirty, and for those who need wait, well good luck. Brexit is just around the corner. There should be more room afterwards as people avoid flying thru London. I know I will.
19
@Jean Louis Lonne
Have to disagree. Terminal 5 at Heathrow is a lovely terminal, always enjoy being there.
4
@Angie
Also love their transparent postbox to drop postcards into before departure!
1
@Jean Louis Lonne
LHR is far from crowded & dirty, the lines are generally short, although you do have to walk a ways to/from gates, and connections between terminals take ages. Contrast with CDG; old, dirty, inefficient and staffed by some of the rudest people you'll ever meet, and miles from central Paris on a filthy, overcrowded commuter train. I love France, but not CDG!
A little clarity please. Is this tax something new? I don't recall ever being charged anything at Heathrow in order to exit the country. Is it factored into the cost of a plane ticket? If that is the case, then these cost-saving measures need to be taken in advance of ticket purchase, whereas the article almost makes it seem that this is something that can be done on the spur of the moment, while in the UK.
15
@gary giardina
The taxes/fees are just in the cost of your ticket. It is likely to be invisible to you unless you look at the detailed pricing. I have experienced these fees for 10 years (I am pretty sure) so they go back a long time. Also, I do think it's true that Heathrow has been raising landing fees as well which of course gets added into ticket cost.
It is true if you have already purchased your ticket there is not much opportunity to change course. You'd have to think of this before booking.
3
@gary giardina Read your airline ticket. It details the taxes.
4
I'm baffled by this article. Britain is one of the most comparatively cheap destinations for Americans these days, given how Brexit proceedings have devastated the value of the pound sterling.
To pay $75 (or more realistically $150) to take the Eurostar to avoid flight taxes, excuse the pun, is penny wise and pound foolish.
29
@James S Avoiding the airport taxes are one issue. If you use miles, especially American and Alaska, they partner with British Airways. The surcharges on an award ticket are well above just the taxes levied at Heathrow or Gatwick. If you can use another airport which is a reasonable distance away (i.e. Brussels or Paris), it opens up possibilities to find award space on another carrier not charging the excessive taxes and surcharges.
7
Flyers are often surprised that a "free" award miles tickets to/from Great Britain are only a few dollars cheaper than a paid ticket due to mandatory taxes and fees charged by the government and airlines. So, I have to wonder why some airlines do their best to route award miles flyers through Great Britain whenever they fly to anywhere in Europe. Is it because the airlines are trying to discourage the use of award miles?
Steve
www.travelingprofessor.com
8
@TravelingProfessor yes
1
Using American Airlines AAdvantage miles (or even paying for a flight) to get to Hamburg, where I store my motorcycle for my annual European riding, always routes me through HRW, and the British tax is grotesque. Having enough AA miles to pay for a Business Class flight-- and BA seems to be AA's transatlantic partner -- would have required, in addition to the many AA miles, around $1000 in tax (even the AA agent seemed embarrassed by that fee); I booked Coach and saved that money.
4
@BldrHouse, I think there's also a difference between airlines as to what taxes can be "paid for" with miles. When I priced business class miles tickets to Europe for my honeymoon, the route on Delta used miles plus about $50 per ticket for taxes, while the BA ticket required fewer miles but about $400 per ticket for taxes. I paid the extra miles on Delta to save cash out of pocket.