Taxes and Charges...

[QFTravel]

Hope that some of the frequent flyers here could assist me in calculating the taxes applicable to flying to Singapore in November this year.

I will making the flights using some of my points so I am just curious to know what taxes and charges I will be up for.

Flight Details
BA17 MEL-SIN (Y)
BA18 SIN-MEL (J)
92,500 points + ....

I calculate around $242.55 in taxes??

 

[NM]

I make it A$225.65 plus S$21. Not sure what Rate if Exchange is current for S$ -> A$.

This is made up of:

AU = A$38
YQ = A$162
WG = A$4.01
WY = A$21.64
SG = S$21

 

[serfty]

I make it A$225.65 plus S$21. Not sure what Rate if Exchange is current for S$ -> A$. ...

I use this ANZ Web page for quick calculations (ignoring fees).

SG$21 can be purchased for you, today only. for AU$16.87. That give a total of AU$242.52!

 

[NM]

But the airlines use the IATA approved ROE (Rate Of Exchange) for these calculations. This is set on a regular basis (every few months) and is from the local currency to US$. You can see it printed on paper tickets for over seas travel, and it is published here for the current ROE for A$. This is what the airlines use for calculating taxes etc in foreign currencies.

I don't know where to find the current ROE for S$. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[QFTravel]

serfty and NM thanks very much for your comments. Appreciate the assistance as I was unsure if the charges were for a one-way trip (thus payable twice). I'll see what I can find re: the ROE and report back

 

[JohnK]

Can someone please help out with taxes and charges? Award trip is not until April so I understand there may be changes between now and then. I wasn't game on going past booking stage on award ticket.

After all how hard can it be :?: There are whole forums on taxes and charges on most frequent flyer websites. :?

Award SYD-SIN-SYD (60,000 points in economy) with following flights

• QF123 SYD-DRW
  QF81 DRW-SIN
  QF52 SIN-BNE
  QF517 BNE-SYD

I think taxes and charges are $371.91

Also award DRW-SIN-SYD (48,000 in economy) with following flights

• QF81 DRW-SIN
  QF52 SIN-BNE
  QF513 BNE-SYD

I think taxes and charges are $300.93.

Who knows may be I am right may be I am wrong. :? It would have been nice to have number closer to the mark. Oh well. Take a risk John, it is only money.

 

[NM]

Can someone please help out with taxes and charges? Award trip is not until April so I understand there may be changes between now and then.

Calculating taxes and charges is a long and arduous exercise when done manually.

If you are just after an estimate, then go to the Qantas web site and commence making a booking. When it prices out you can click on the price and it will be broken down by fare and extras. For domestic flights the extras will also include GST, so you will have to manually reduce by 10% of the fare component and you will be vary close to the award extras charge for the same routing. GST still applies to some extra charges for domestic flights, but that will still be charged on an award, its only the fare GST component that will not be paid since the fare component is $0.

 

[Warks]

FYI: SYD-LAX-SYD on points (80 000) booked back in May 05 cost me $239 in taxes!

 

[JohnK]

FYI: SYD-LAX-SYD on points (80 000) booked back in May 05 cost me $239 in taxes!

Thanks but not the same as DRW-SIN-BNE-SYD or SYD-DRW-SIN-BNE-SYD.

Looks like I will have to calculate on my lonesome as I wasn't game on going past booking stage on award ticket.

After all how hard can it be :?: There are whole forums on taxes and charges on most frequent flyer websites. :?

 

[serfty]

... I wasn't game on going past booking stage on award ticket.

Go on, be tough, you can do it....

No booking is made or finalised, nor are points deducted until after you enter your credit card details. It will tell you how much the Taxes etc are before then. It's quite safe, just do not enter your CC details.

After all how hard can it be :?: There are whole forums on taxes and charges on most frequent flyer websites. :?

Actually, these charges vary from port to port, between different points of departure, routings etc. It's an absolute PITA to calculate manually!

 

[freaky]

I hated doing manual tax calculations. It used to chew up at least an hour in an average day doing various round world itins.

 

[NM]

You don't have to use the award booking engine to find the approx taxesa nd surcharges. Just start a normal fare quote and when you get the fare listed you just click on the price and it give the breakdown of fare component and extras.

 

[serfty]

You don't have to use the award booking engine to find the approx taxesa nd surcharges. Just start a normal fare quote and when you get the fare listed you just click on the price and it give the breakdown of fare component and extras.

It's not so straightforward though to do SYD-DRW-SIN-BNE-SYD online and get a clean QF quote.

 

[JohnK]

No booking is made or finalised, nor are points deducted until after you enter your credit card details. It will tell you how much the Taxes etc are before then. It's quite safe, just do not enter your CC details.

Thanks serfty. Was not too sure and did not want to commit to the points before looking at the taxes & charges.

You don't have to use the award booking engine to find the approx taxesa nd surcharges. Just start a normal fare quote and when you get the fare listed you just click on the price and it give the breakdown of fare component and extras.

It's not so straightforward though to do SYD-DRW-SIN-BNE-SYD online and get a clean QF quote.

I have calculated taxes and charges for each sector individually. Not sure whether they are anywhere near right.

• DRW-SIN-BNE-SYD is $300.93
  SYD-DRW-SIN-BNE-SYD is $371.91

Somehow they look too high as transitting through DRW and BNE should reduce the taxes and charges. :?

 

[NM]

You don't have to use the award booking engine to find the approx taxesa nd surcharges. Just start a normal fare quote and when you get the fare listed you just click on the price and it give the breakdown of fare component and extras.

It's not so straightforward though to do SYD-DRW-SIN-BNE-SYD online and get a clean QF quote.

I didn't have any problems. Just selected a one-way flight SYD-SIN on 1st Feb 2005 and selection the option for QF123/QF81. Price quoted was $1476.69 of which $183.69 was extras. Need to do this as a one-way since that flight combination did not show up for a return flight, where less options are presented.

The QF booking page will not permit a one-way SIN-SYD if you select Australia as region, so now do a simple one-way non-stop SYD-SIN and you find those taxes are $138.81. Now do a return, selecting the same non-stop for the outbound and QF51/QF513 for the inbound. This shows the return extras as $284.63, so the return portion of those extras is $284.63 - $138.81 = $145.82.

So the taxes for SYD-DRW-SIN and SIN-BNE-SYD will be $183.69 + 145.82 = $329.51.

 

[JohnK]

So the taxes for SYD-DRW-SIN and SIN-BNE-SYD will be $183.69 + 145.82 = $329.51.

There is no doubt about it you are a genius.

I was only $42.40 out.

 

[serfty]

... I didn't have any problems. Just selected a one-way flight SYD-SIN on 1st Feb 2005 and selection the option for QF123/QF81. Price quoted was $1476.69 of which $183.69 was extras. Need to do this as a one-way since that flight combination did not show up for a return flight, where less options are presented.

The QF booking page will not permit a one-way SIN-SYD if you select Australia as region, so now do a simple one-way non-stop SYD-SIN and you find those taxes are $138.81. Now do a return, selecting the same non-stop for the outbound and QF51/QF513 for the inbound. ...

The problem is that the sectors you want do not alway appear as options; it's easier and you have more control if you do it through the award booking engine.

FWIW, you can also get the $145 answer by doing a one way booking from the Qantas Singapore Portal; comes out at SG$176 which is currently ~AU$145.

 

[tanewi]

Who knows may be I am right may be I am wrong. :? It would have been nice to have number closer to the mark. Oh well. Take a risk John, it is only money.

Interesting John, you never struck me as being "risk adverse"!

 

[JohnK]

Interesting John, you never struck me as being "risk adverse"!

I have had my fair share of risk taking exercises over the years. Rayong-Pattaya at 11:30pm after 16 hours of work, on another of our famous bar crawls and returning to Rayong at 3:30am only to wake up at 6:30am and spend another 20 hours data migrating is one that readily springs to mind. Remember Bing and Bong?

But when it comes to taxes and charges, especially GST, I want to be cautious, I don't like taking risks. :?

 

[NM]

The problem is that the sectors you want do not alway appear as options; it's easier and you have more control if you do it through the award booking engine.

You get more options if you take one-way options rather than a return booking, which is what I did for the SYD-DRW-SIN route.

FWIW, you can also get the $145 answer by doing a one way booking from the Qantas Singapore Portal; comes out at SG$176 which is currently ~AU$145.

Yeah, I was going to do that, but then would have needed to figure out the ROE for Singapore . So I thought I was ok with addition and subtraction, but multiplication would be stretching my grey matter beyond its capability at this time of the day .