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The last time I flew out of Vancouver our group almost didn't board because of the last minute scramble to come up with cash to pay a "New" Departure Tax... I and most of my group felt it was the equivalent of Extortion because we were told no one can board without paying the tax.
We had all booked through Alaska Airlines and Alaska verified they had nothing on their website about it and my prepaid tickets make no mention of it back in 2001.
I never received a reply from the Tourist Board or the Airport Commission...
Does Vancouver still extort this money on Departure? Note... no tax to enter... only to leave.
Last edited by Ultrarunner; 05-01-2008 at 10:17 AM..
Almost every airport in the world does this. The only difference with YVR is that they don't include it in the price of your ticket, you have to pay the toll booth on the way to the gate.
If memory serves me correctly, they now integrate it into the cost of the fare.
Yeah, they no longer charge it separately as they did before. Everyone, regardless of airline or whether they were flying domestically or internationally had to pay it. Your group wasn't singled out.
I've previously flown a lot for business and Vancouver is my only experience with a Departure "Toll Booth"
The odd thing is that no one in my group of 41 had been informed... not by the travel agents or Alaska Airlines... and I had made dozens of Vancouver departures...
Alaska Airlines did apologize and now references it...
All I can say is that it left a really bad taste in our opinion of Canada and I have not been back since...
Passengers were actually borrowing money from one another to be allowed to board...
You don't mind taking it, but you prefer not knowing about it.
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