Yesterday I got a promotional email advertising round trip coach airfare from JFK to LHR. Since I have a trip to London in May, I thought this would be a steal! Even better…I could earn .50 cents by clicking the advertisement at the top of my own website. So I could go to London for only $209.50! Woohoo. I put in my dates, picked my flights and sure enough, the flight added up to $210, round trip. This seemed way too good to be true. And it was! You know how much the taxes and fees were? $676.10.
Unreal…bait and switch? False advertising? I’m not sure what to call it except cruel! Oh, and look for just $416 more, I can buy premium economy. Except as I learned when I clicked that option, $416 only upgrades you to premium economy one-way.
What a deal!
Oh, and PS, the parternship between US Airways and Virgin Atlantic ends June 1st 2013, so no more Virgin flights for me after May.
Definitely false advertising. Doesn’t DOT mandate that full airfare be advertised including taxes and surcharges?
Its not quite false advertising, its the cost of you landing in England (someone has to pay for the airport that will never be built! 🙂 ). The airline knows this so they advertise the base fare. Once taxes are added it quadruples and the airline can blame taxes on the government. Perversely it almost makes the airline look like the victim……
I’m with Angelina – thought this base fare “bait and switch” was no longer allowed.
@Angelina, I thought so, but maybe not on foreign carriers?
I had a similar experience w/Air China recently
I think that this is dishonest in two ways. First, as Angelina and Becky point out, these should now be included in the quote. But I think airlines add another layer of dishonest. We all accept taxes as inevitable. As LH points out there is the cost of building (or planning to build?) airports. It’s the fees that get to me. These, particularly the fuel surcharges, go straight to the airline. So they are part of the fare. It is as silly as a taxi driver asking you to pay to fill the tank — in addition to the fare!