Booking Hints

#4 Visas

A real hassle for both you and me. There is a lot of work involved with visas. Some consulates will not accept cheques, both personal and travel agent ones while some want cash only. Some require extra paperwork such as visa invitation letters which can only be obtained from overseas sources. Some visa application can be rejected for a number of reasons so make sure you have answered fully, all the questions. It is surprising how many people forget to sign the form. We double check each and every application thoroughly before we courier it to the consulate.

Plan ahead. A visa for Poland takes twenty one working days while a Russian one takes thirteen working days. However, most consulates have speed fees which reduce the time it takes. Money talks! For instance, by paying $115 extra the Russian one can be done in two working days. So you have a choice, plan ahead and allow plenty of time or pay the price. Most travel agents charge a fee for helping you obtain visas.

#5 Taxes

Unfortunately, like parking fines, you can’t avoid them. They are increasing in number and value faster than the actual airfare. Most countries have a departure tax and some have exotic taxes such as Embarkation Tax, Airport Facility Tax, Baggage Screening Charge, Passenger Facility Tax and Noise Isolation Tax. One which I like is the Hacienda Tax which has exemptions for government officials and those passengers holding an exemption letter from The Ministry of Finance – lucky people.

These are collected by the airline and given to the government of the appropriate country.

These amounts appear on your airline ticket with a two letter code attached to them, eg Australia’s $55 departure tax is shown as AU. At present there is not enough area on the ticket to show all the taxes individually so many will be collected together and called XT. They can also vary depending on exchange rates. Going to the UK via the States might cost you about $300 in taxes.

And of course not all countries collect these taxes at source – some like New Zealand make you join a long queue up at some box at the airport where you pay your $25 and have a sticker put on your boarding pass. So make sure you have enough money left for this.

If you are in transit then most departure taxes can be avoided but there are always exceptions to any rule. If you arrive into London on one ticket and then depart on another ticket but are only in transit then you end up paying the departure taxes. It is a real quirk but the airlines must treat each ticket separately just in case you do make a stopover. This means the British government collects taxes for which it is not entitled – not an unusual way though for many governments to collect taxes.

So next time you ask for a fare make sure you get an idea of how much extra the taxes will be. The exact amount will be worked out when you pay in full for the ticket.