Five Ways Arrival and Departure Fees Can Hit You Hard

"We're Mad at You" Fees

Argentina assesses an arrival fee of $160 on Canadian and U.S. citizens, payable only online and in advance. Chile assesses the same $160 fee on U.S. citizens, but you must pay upon arrival (and not online) by cash or credit card. These fees are not included in the ticket price, so you have to be prepared in advance for Argentina or with payment on arrival for Chile.

Both fees are basically retaliations for visa and other fees assessed by the U.S. on visiting Argentine and Chilean citizens. Citizens of other countries are not targeted.

Ransom Fees—You Can't Leave Until You Pay

Several countries assess departure fees payable at your departure airport, and these fees are not included in the ticket price. Countries charging departure fees include Costa Rica, at $29 by credit card or in local cash; Honduras, at about $39; Guatemala, at about $2.50 in the local currency; Indonesia, at about $16 in the local currency; Peru, at about $12 in the local currency; Philippines, at about $13; and Venezuela, at $39.

You may encounter others. Always check the State Department website for information about any country you plan to visit.

Big Hits in the Ticket

A lot of countries charge departure, airport, or national taxes that are bundled into the airfare you pay. Most are nominal, in the range of $20 to $50, but unless you look, you never see them. A few, however, are really stiff.

By far the worst of these is the "Air Passenger Duty" assessed by the U.K. The amount depends on your destination's distance from London and the class of service in which you fly: On flights from the U.K. to the U.S. or Canada, the duty is £67 in the "lowest class of service" on each plane—almost always economy class—and £134 in any higher class of service, from premium economy to first class. On flights to destinations where the capital city is 2,000 miles from London or less (this includes domestic U.K and most of Western Europe) the amounts are £13 in economy and £26 in higher classes. Higher rates apply for flights to Asia, southern Africa, and South America, among others. These fees apply to "free" frequent-flyer awards as well as to paid tickets.

Nonstop flights from Belfast to the U.S. are exempted and pay no duty. Currently, that means no duty on Continental's flights to Newark.

The duty applies only to itineraries originating in the U.K. Passengers from a third country connecting to the U.S. through a U.K. airport do not pay, as long as the connecting time does not exceed 24 hours. Read all the fine print here.

Oh, Canada

Taxes on travel originating in Canada are higher than taxes and fees assessed in the U.S., depending on the airport and where you fly. Canadian taxes include a consumption tax of 7 percent, a security fee of $5 to $7.50, an airport facility fee of usually $5 to $15 per airport (but higher at a few airports), and air navigation fees somewhere between $6 and $20, depending on route and airplane.

From Vancouver round-trip to London in October, for example, Air Canada charges $1,266 plus $210 for "taxes, fees, and charges," but the base fare includes the following additional "surcharges": a $30 navigation fee, a $3 insurance fee, a $26 security fee, and a $20 Vancouver Airport fee, all of which add up to $79. By contrast, United charges a $969 base fare plus $222 in taxes and charges with no additional surcharges.

Canadian fees and taxes are high enough that U.S. airlines are doing bonanza business on flights to/from airports within an easy drive of major Canadian cities. Most notable are Bellingham (Vancouver), Great Falls (Calgary), Grand Forks (Winnipeg), Buffalo or Niagara Falls (Toronto), and Burlington or Plattsburg (Montreal).

Pay to Leave, Pay to Come Home

The U.S. has become tax-happy, too. All domestic tickets include 7.5 percent of the ticket price, plus $3 per flight segment. The only exceptions are flights from the 48 contiguous states to Alaska or Hawaii, where the tax applies to portions of the trip flown over the Pacific Ocean or Canada and is set at $6.70. A security fee of up to $5 per airport helps fund the TSA.

Many individual U.S. airports assess "passenger facilities charges" (PFCs) of up to $4.50 per departure, depending on the airport, with a maximum of four PFCs per ticket.

But the big fees are on international travel. The U.S. adds a handful of additional fees: a $13.40 departure tax and a $13.50 arrival tax to/from any foreign country that is more than 225 miles from the U.S. border, plus arrival charges of a $5 customs fee, a $7 immigration fee, and a $3.10 animal- and plant-health fee. It adds up to a tidy $42 to get out of and back into the U.S.

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