4 ms·

I wish the airlines would make it clearer to passengers the fees they are paying. If every passenger was reminded just after going through the TSA that $5 of t

I wish the airlines would make it clearer to passengers the fees they are paying. If every passenger was reminded just after going through the TSA that $5 of their ticket actually went to the TSA for the procedure, I suspect there would be a lot more pressure for change.

jmspring 13y ago
My last trip to London from SFO, according to the ticket fare breakdown, fees were more than 1/2 the ticket. Probably closer to 60%. I would love to see every line item. Just over Christmas break, we flew from the Vancouver commuter terminal to Tofino. Aside from the delays due to weather, no TSA, super friendly staff, quick mostly comfy flight.
- objclxt 13y ago
  > My last trip to London from SFO, according to the ticket fare breakdown, fees were more than 1/2 the ticket. Probably closer to 60%. I would love to see every line item. If you were flying a UK airline they were probably counting the "fuel surcharge" as a fee, which in many cases can be the majority of the ticket. I just priced up the cheapest SFO-LHR return on Virgin next month, it came in at $1000, with $458 being "carrier imposed surcharges", counted as fees. Except they're not fees at all, it's the 'fuel surcharge'. Actual taxes and fees were $233, or 23%. Your airline should have given you a link to the line by line breakdown of every item ($5 custom fee, $2.50 TSA fee, etc) when you bought the ticket. On a related note, if you're flying from SFO you're not actually interacting with the TSA itself at all, San Francisco is one of the few airports that contracts out security screening to a TSA-approved company (some people think SFO has more 'friendly' security screening because of it, I haven't really noticed).
  - jmspring 13y ago
    It was a company purchased ticket, I can probably dig it up...but by fees, I was lumping in surcharges, as you state. One way my wife and I have helped deal with some of the line hassle -- GOES (for coming back into the country), Clear (had it before PreCheck came about and will reevaluate), and now PreCheck (GOES helped with this). I've heard some mention that as more and more people become PreCheck eligible, that will become the norm rather than the exception. We shall see. With regard to SFO not being TSA, I'm aware of this and generally have found them much more efficient than the TSA. Probably my best TSA experiences have been in Seattle (recently) and Kona, friendly and generally laughing. Worst opt out experience was actually SFO w/ a manager who took exception to anyone opting out and waited 10+ min before calling someone over -- "The delay is to encourage you to go through the machines".
ck2 13y ago
This is actually an extremely good idea. Make it a law or greatly encourage airlines to itemize the TSA inspection fee. Also list the prescreening fee for when they profile all your data before you even get to the airport. What's crazy is people would be upset about the fee and not the procedure itself.
swalsh 13y ago
Its actually a good idea. If you take the charge off the ticket price, and put a cash register with the agent checking your id... i'd imagine people would react differently.
munificent 13y ago
By extension, I would love it if my tax forms clarified what fraction of my salary went to funding the NSA.
- ck2 13y ago
  In theory it would be possible to make a website where you just type in your taxes paid and then it shows a pie chart of where each percent went.
  - lostlogin 13y ago
    It probably wouldn't be too different to this would it? Divvy up your tax bill. Note it's 2010. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/ce/Fy2010_spending_by_category.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/ce/Fy2010_spendin...
- gamblor956 13y ago
  http://nationalpriorities.org/interactive-data/taxday/ http://nationalpriorities.org/interactive-data/taxday/ Took 5 seconds to find. A tax return is used to provide your income information to the government. If you want information about how government monies are being spent, you can look it up. This information is freely available online. The tax return is not the proper place for this information, as not all government monies arise from income taxes.

jmspring 13y ago

My last trip to London from SFO, according to the ticket fare breakdown, fees were more than 1/2 the ticket. Probably closer to 60%. I would love to see every line item. Just over Christmas break, we flew from the Vancouver commuter terminal to Tofino. Aside from the delays due to weather, no TSA, super friendly staff, quick mostly comfy flight.

objclxt 13y ago
> My last trip to London from SFO, according to the ticket fare breakdown, fees were more than 1/2 the ticket. Probably closer to 60%. I would love to see every line item. If you were flying a UK airline they were probably counting the "fuel surcharge" as a fee, which in many cases can be the majority of the ticket. I just priced up the cheapest SFO-LHR return on Virgin next month, it came in at $1000, with $458 being "carrier imposed surcharges", counted as fees. Except they're not fees at all, it's the 'fuel surcharge'. Actual taxes and fees were $233, or 23%. Your airline should have given you a link to the line by line breakdown of every item ($5 custom fee, $2.50 TSA fee, etc) when you bought the ticket. On a related note, if you're flying from SFO you're not actually interacting with the TSA itself at all, San Francisco is one of the few airports that contracts out security screening to a TSA-approved company (some people think SFO has more 'friendly' security screening because of it, I haven't really noticed).
- jmspring 13y ago
  It was a company purchased ticket, I can probably dig it up...but by fees, I was lumping in surcharges, as you state. One way my wife and I have helped deal with some of the line hassle -- GOES (for coming back into the country), Clear (had it before PreCheck came about and will reevaluate), and now PreCheck (GOES helped with this). I've heard some mention that as more and more people become PreCheck eligible, that will become the norm rather than the exception. We shall see. With regard to SFO not being TSA, I'm aware of this and generally have found them much more efficient than the TSA. Probably my best TSA experiences have been in Seattle (recently) and Kona, friendly and generally laughing. Worst opt out experience was actually SFO w/ a manager who took exception to anyone opting out and waited 10+ min before calling someone over -- "The delay is to encourage you to go through the machines".

ck2 13y ago

This is actually an extremely good idea. Make it a law or greatly encourage airlines to itemize the TSA inspection fee. Also list the prescreening fee for when they profile all your data before you even get to the airport. What's crazy is people would be upset about the fee and not the procedure itself.

swalsh 13y ago

Its actually a good idea. If you take the charge off the ticket price, and put a cash register with the agent checking your id... i'd imagine people would react differently.

munificent 13y ago

By extension, I would love it if my tax forms clarified what fraction of my salary went to funding the NSA.

ck2 13y ago
In theory it would be possible to make a website where you just type in your taxes paid and then it shows a pie chart of where each percent went.
- lostlogin 13y ago
  It probably wouldn't be too different to this would it? Divvy up your tax bill. Note it's 2010. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/ce/Fy2010_spending_by_category.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/ce/Fy2010_spendin...
gamblor956 13y ago
http://nationalpriorities.org/interactive-data/taxday/ http://nationalpriorities.org/interactive-data/taxday/ Took 5 seconds to find. A tax return is used to provide your income information to the government. If you want information about how government monies are being spent, you can look it up. This information is freely available online. The tax return is not the proper place for this information, as not all government monies arise from income taxes.