The invoice for “Free Tickets” from KLM/Air France Flying Blue
Taxes and surcharges Adult
Carrier imposed surcharge 372.28
UK air passenger duty 103.98
Airport fee 36.45
Passenger service charge 32.07
Passenger service charge 21.61
Passenger service charge international 13.93
French airport tax 12.72
Embarkation tax 4.50
Solidarity tax 1.00
Total per passenger 598.54
Number of passengers 4
Total including taxes and surcharges : £ 2,394.16
I fly around the world a great deal and had never tried to use any of the “airmile” type benefits I had accrued. As I kept receiving tempting brochures and internet offers, I decided to use my 420,000 Flying Blue miles on taking the family to Martinique for a holiday.
Flying Blue had been bombarding my inbox with a promo. I was stupid enough to invest an hour into trying to book this online. This is the bill I was presented with at the end for these “free” flights.
The taxes I can understand as they are passed on by the airline, but the “Carrier Imposed Surcharge” of 372.28 per person is simply an airfare. I phoned up Flying Blue to query this and was told it was a “fuel surcharge”.
It was stupid of me to believe I was actually going to be able to get what all that promotional material seemed to offer. On the face of it this is just a simple tale of Craig being gullible. But I can’t help feeling that the pointlessness of all those brochures and emails, of the rigmarole of your membership card and points accumulation and statements, all to attempt to sell you something you didn’t particularly want, by deceit, says something about the lack of values of straightforwardness in modern society. Or something.
Anyway Flying Blue is a confidence trick, and if this saves someone else the time and disappointment of bothering with it, that would be a good thing.