There are many things you’ll consider when choosing which foreign country to visit but I bet one thing you usually wouldn’t think about is how much you’ll need to pay to leave the country and return home. Yep, governments have realized that an easy way to collect money from tourists (as well as their own residents) is to charge a fee when leaving the country. Sure, in some countries, it’s called a tax, in others, it’s a duty and you’ll even see it referred to as a fee, but make no mistake, they’re all ways to have you pay money so you can leave the country.
Examples of Departure Fees Around the World
The amount of these, let’s call them fees, varies greatly from country to country. Japan adds a departure tax of ¥1000, (about $7 USD), for people leaving the country. Australia charges a Passenger Movement Charge of A$70 ($44 USD) and Fiji charges a F$170 ($73 USD) Airport Departure Tax to all departing passengers.
How Airlines Handle Departure Fees on Award Tickets
One reason you need to know the departure fee is that airlines will often charge you this fee when redeeming miles for an award ticket. Since it’s not considered part of the airline’s airfare cost, they pass the charge on to you.
Otherwise, you may not even realize you’re paying the fee because the charge is included in the price of your airline ticket; it’s just another of the multitude of fees on a ticket. You could always use Google to figure out what the fee is for the country you’re visiting but it’s not always easy to figure it out.
How to Find Departure Fees for Your Trip
I like to use the ITA Matrix airfare search tool to determine the taxes and fees on an airplane ticket. Here’s a breakdown of fees on a flight from Fiji to Los Angeles, where you can see the FJD 170.00 Airport Departure Tax.
These are the fees on a ticket from Australia to Los Angeles. The fee is called the Australia Passenger Movement Charge, whatever that means.
I will say, it was worth paying the fee to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge. 😉
Mexico charges a departure tax as well, and it is called the Mexico Airport Departure Tax. That MX$1301 works out to be about $65 USD.
These fees are charged in the local currency, so the amount may fluctuate due to exchange rate changes.
Variations in Departure Fees
While many countries charge a flat fee, others charge different amounts based on several variables. For countries that have this form of tax, the things that determine how much you’ll pay are:
- The distance of the flight
- Class of service (economy, business)
Germany charges a Luftverkehrsabgabe (departure tax) based on the distance of your flight. The fee ranges from €15.53 ($16.90 USD) for the shortest flights, €39.34 ($42.80 USD) for mid-range flights and €70.83 ($77.06 USD) for all other flights. The class of service doesn’t matter so you’ll pay the same for a flight in economy or first class.
The Worst Offender: The UK’s Air Passenger Duty
The most complicated, and often the most expensive fee, is imposed by the United Kingdom on departures from their airports. Here’s the UK government website with the full description of air passenger duty.
There are four different pricing bands for APD:
- Domestic Band: Domestic flights (only within England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland) – £7 for economy class and £14 for premium class.
- Band A: International flights of up to 2,000 miles – £13 for economy class and £26 for premium class.
- Band B: International flights of 2,001 to 5,500 miles – £88 for economy class and £194 for premium class.
- Band C: International flights of more than 5,500 miles – £92 for economy class and £202 for premium class.
Since the economy class rate is only for the lowest class of travel, you’ll pay the premium rate for seats in premium economy, business, and first class.
When redeeming miles for our flight on Virgin Atlantic Economy, we had to pay $116.39 USD per ticket for the United Kingdom Air Passenger Duty.
Final Thoughts
So when planning a trip, particularly one where you are looking forward to getting a free flight with your miles, remember to take these departure fees into account when making your budget. You can check out this Wikipedia page to get an idea of all the countries that charge some sort of fee. I found that the currency exchanges were out of date but it’s as good of a place to start looking as any I found. If you need to pay a departure fee on an award ticket, it pays to have a card that has earned cash back, like the Fidelity Rewards Visa Signature or even the Citi Double Cash, where you can use the cash you’ve earned to pay these fees and still get a “free” flight.
Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.
Want to sponsor a post, write something for Your Mileage May Vary, or put ads on our site? Click here for more info.
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and sign up to get emailed notifications of when we post.
Whether you’ve read our articles before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
