Let's say you're organizing a trip to Europe and want to include a stop in the United Kingdom. When should you schedule a trip to London—in the beginning, in the middle, or at the end? Even so, does it matter?
If you strategically organize the stops, you might be able to save hundreds of dollars.
Consider visiting five of Europe's most well-known cities. The following cities' business-class award flights on United Airlines incur the following taxes and surcharges while flying to Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR):
• Cost: $40 from Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN).
• Cost: $61 Rome Leonardo da Vinci Airport (FCO).
• Cost: $85 Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS).
• Cost: $143 Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG).
• Cost: $325 London Heathrow Airport (LHR).
As you can see, flying out of the United Kingdom is much more expensive than flying out of any other country on the list – it costs more than twice as much. The nation levies the highest exit fees of any nation on earth.
This is due to the "Air Passenger Duty," or APD, in the United Kingdom, which fluctuates depending on two factors:
• The length of your flight.
• The class of service.
APD would be lower for a flight from the UK to Spain than from the UK to South America, for instance. Similarly to this, a first-class award ticket on the same aircraft costs more APD than an economy ticket.
When traveling on a single ticket, connections across the U.K. that last less than 24 hours are not subject to the APD. That means that if you were to receive a free award flight from Vienna to New York with a three-hour layover in London, you wouldn't have to pay the tax.
The United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Italy are among the European nations with the highest tax rates. On the other hand, it is less expensive to fly out of places like Ireland, Spain, Greece, Turkey, and Portugal.
Keep in mind that these fees are only applied to aircraft leaving from these nations; APD does not apply to flights arriving from the United States to the United Kingdom.
Finally, it's important to remember that in addition to APD, two of the biggest airlines in the UK, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, also demand exorbitant fuel surcharges on their flights. Therefore, award trips on these airlines will still have substantial out-of-pocket expenses (even if merely connecting through London).
Visit the nations with the highest taxes initially or in the middle of your tour when arranging your next vacation to Europe. Finish your trip to one of the less expensive nations. You can then use your money to buy additional pastries, espressos, and sangria.
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