OT: International Air Fares + $200 in taxes?
 

Recently, I noticed that British Midlands had dropped their fares from Chicago to London to $150 roundtrip from now until March.

"Cool!", I thought, since that would mean I could visit friends in England for relatively cheap.

I went to the website and selected my flights, but once done selecting them (but the step before purchasing them), it said I'd be paying almost $400 per ticket.

"Odd", I thought. I looked at the fine print. The fine print said upwards of $200 was added to the bill for "taxes and fees". I looked at the taxes and fees and found (I'm paraphrasing here): "A tax of $200 may be added to the purchase of tickets by the U.S. government based on certain fares or routing."

I checked other airlines, other flights, other destinations. All the same. If you want to fly international from the U.S., apparently you're going to pay a $200 tax.

So, questions: Is this new? Has anyone else run into this? Is there any way around it?

I noticed that earlier this week as well. If I recall, taxes were about 50-75 less when I purchased a round-trip ticket to Europe last fall.

Most international flights are adding a fuel surcharge. I don't think it's a tax, it's their way of shifting blame from the company to the government.

My wife just flew to England from SF. The ticket was $400 before taxes. $600 something after taxes.

This is becoming common in all industries here in the US. For example, the phone company will advertise local service for only $19.95. By the time all the "fees" are added in, you're paying around $40. These "fees" include such things as real estate taxes paid on their property. Things that used to be considered a business expense and rolled into the price are now split out so they can claim a low price, even if the final cost to the consumer is much higher.