Airline and Airport Fees Ripof

Airport Fees: Airport Improvement Fees (AIF) may apply
depending upon your destination.

Canada Goods and Services Tax: Prices listed may not include
GST, HST, or individual province taxes.

Air Travellers Security Charge (ATSC): For domestic flights,
the ATSC tax is $4.67 CAD/segment. For transborder flights,
the ATSC tax is $7.94 CAD/segment. For international flights,
the ATSC tax is $24.00 CAD per trip. A flight segment is
defined as one takeoff and one landing.

NAV Canada: A surcharge is collected to operate Canada's
Air Navigation systems. Surcharges within Canada are up to
$20.00 CAD based on distance. International itineraries are
up to $15.00 CAD per round-trip ticket.

Fuel Surcharge: In reaction to rising oil costs, many
airlines have imposed a fuel surcharge to flight bookings.

Insurance Surcharges: Many airlines have implemented a
nominal insurance surcharge to cover the costs of aviation
insurance.

Shipping & Handling Fees: Some travel companies or their
agents may impose shipping and/or handling fees if you
request paper tickets or for certain types of transactions.

Service Fee: Companies listing offers on Travelzoo Canada
may charge a service fee.

Itinerary Changes/Cancellations/Refunds: Itinerary changes,
if permitted for the fare, may have a change fee dependent
on the market, supplier and the specific fares rules
associated with your ticket.

Vacation Affordability

A young, newly married, acquaintance of mine is planning a one week island vacation. There is nothing wrong with that if he could afford it. He seems to think so. I think he is making a big mistake that will cost him dearly.

Here are the facts. See what you think?

He is newly married for slightly over a year. He is 30 years old she is 32. They both have student loans outstanding of approximately $30,000. They have no savings. They presently live in an apartment and want to buy a house within the next year. He has a good job as a high school teacher earning approximately $35,000 per year. She as works in a office earning approximately $30,000 per year. She wants to have a child soon within the next 2 years.

Going to a discount travel agent like Itravel200 and looking at Caribbean island packages in the middle of summer, which is the cheapest time to go, one finds that the average island all-inclusive 7 day package costs approximately $2,000 for 2 with all taxes included.

Assuming both retire in 30 years and assuming they invest the $2,000 instead in a stock market index fund, this money will grow to $35,000 by the time they retire. This is just using an average of 10% compound interest over 30 years as this is the average annual growth of the stock market over long time periods.

Now, can they give up the instant pleasure of the vacation for the future pleasure and security of $35,000?

Another way to look at it is that this vacation is actually costing them $35,000.