Europe air fees... WTF?

[CurtEastPoint]

I was just kinda looking, thinking about going to Denmark. Get this (Expedia):

Atlanta to Copenhagen
Sun Sep/2/2012 - Wed Sep/12/2012

1 Ticket: Roundtrip

Traveler 1: Adult$1,072.60
Flight$453.00
Taxes & Airline Fees $619.60
Expedia Booking Fee $0.00

Surely these are US and European fees combined but wow... more than the airfare itself!

[cbayer]

1. Fuel prices. Keep shopping, though, they are supposed to go down soon.

I paid less for that for Los Angeles to Nairobi last fall.

Also, check out Turkish Airlines. They have some great deals, are a fabulous airlines and you would be able to stop in Istanbul (highly recommended) for no additional charge.

[Major Nikon]

2. Most of this is a fuel surcharge

However, aviation taxes and fees are much higher in Europe. The reason is because every air traffic control entity charges fees for every service, and every airport charges various fees for their services. You also have to pay carbon credit taxes which the EU gouges foreign flights.

Different countries charge different fees, so sometimes you can save yourself $100 or so by booking to a nearby country.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. $1000 is actually a pretty good price for Europe these days

But try different gateway cities.

For example, it would have cost me $2300 to take Delta's nonstop between Minneapolis and Tokyo, and it would have been Delta, and on a 747 yet.

Through some experimentation with different gateway cities, I found that I could go United Economy Plus (which is just more legroom, no improvement in food or flight attendant attitude) over and All Nippon Air (ANA), a Japanese airline with superb customer service, back for about $900 if I flew out of Los Angeles. I suppressed my hatred of the Los Angeles Airport and found a Delta flight from Minneapolis to Los Angeles for about $300. Even though I had to stay overnight near LAX, I still saved $800 by not going nonstop. I wouldn't have done it for $200, but $800 was definitely worth it.

[Seedersandleechers]

4. I feel your pain

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1216469

[GinGin]

5. WHAT

Nahahaha - NOT!
Are they serious?
I have been travelling by ferry for the last, what, 5 years because of the prices. Do they really expect us to find this money growing off a tree or something?This is ridiculous.
Nope, try [url]http://www.ferrysavers.com[/url] , £35 for a return trip for 5 with my car, to France. You cant beat that!
Beats any aeroplane fare for £600 ! :-O
Ridiculous!