Can I see your boarding pass please?

bagand96

zaax wrote: »

Who told you that one, departure lounges are a cash cow for airport owners - another rip off Britain

Retail in departure lounges is a cash cow for airport owners.

However, the industry has changed massively in the last 20 years since the low cost airline revolution.

Up until about the 1990s airports made nearly all their money from the aviation side of the business. That's charging airlines landing fees and passenger fees.

This changed with the low cost airlines. Part of their model is paying next to nothing to use an airport, or even nothing at all (or in some cases being paid to use an airport!).

This saw a massive shift in how airports make money. Without the revenues from charging airlines they had to diversify and make the money elsewhere. Typically now in the UK an airport will make more money from non aviation (retail, food, parking etc) than they will fro, aviation (charging airlines). I heard recently that one large UK airport only makes around 35% of its income from being an airport, the other 65% from being a shopping centre and car park operator.

So SW17 is right, if the airports lost retail revenue overnight, chances are landing fees would rise, and therefore your air fares....

blindman

SW17 wrote: »

Not always the case, though you have to be selective about what you are buying and do your research beforehand on prices available elsewhere.

And, if nobody shopped at airports, ticket prices would likely increase for everyone...

benjus wrote: »

World of Whiskies sometimes has good prices on single malts (not always though). Plus in many airports you can buy loads and leave it at the airport to collect on your return.

e.g. Ardbeg 10YO is £45.49 / litre at WoW - best I can find in UK retail (based on a quick Google) is about £40/0.7l, so about £57/litre.

Hardly good arguments for shopping in airports

99% of shops are rip offs as the customer has no other choice and for some reason normally sane people behave like idiots as soon as they get to an airports. :rotfl:

SW17

blindman wrote: »

Hardly good arguments for shopping in airports

99% of shops are rip offs as the customer has no other choice and for some reason normally sane people behave like idiots as soon as they get to an airports. :rotfl:

Why would it be any different to choosing to shop anywhere else? You do your research, and if it represents good value, you buy there. The only difference being that for many people, access to airport shopping is restricted.

I have bought a number of items at airports and been confident I've got a good price, but these are usually higher value items and I don't buy them on impulse, I'm aware of the market price.

If you just buy on impulse because there is a sign up saying it is cheap, or you get sucked in by the holiday spirit (or spirits...), you have no idea if you are saving or not. That could be argued for a lot of non-airport shopping as well, hence the existence of this website

InsideInsurance

redpete wrote: »

Seems wrong to me that a retailer should be able to avoid paying VAT when I buy something (maybe a new camera) that I will use on holiday for 2 weeks but then use for much longer after I return to the UK. Or for a drink that I purchase and consume whilst still in the UK.

You are the ones paying VAT not the shop, the shop simply collects the VAT for HMRC.

In practice for most UK duty free shops they retailer absorbs the costs of the taxes for internal/EU travellers and maintains uniform pricing other than on larger alcohol or tobacco purchases. Outside of the UK the practice varies more.

The history is they are tax free because you are exporting them. If you reimport them back to the UK then they form part of your allowance and if you breach that in theory you declare the value and would have to pay taxes on it. In practice of course people ignore the limits and walk through the green channel anyway.

JollyGood_2

Can someone please explain how this relates to the purchase of alcohol given that the allowance differs when travelling to various destinations (ie in/out of EU) so the purchase needs to be checked by producing the boarding card? Or are we saying that it is the job of customs to check this, not the shop?

Moto2

I've never noticed any airport shop caring one iota what quantity of booze you buy.
It isn't their business

[Deleted User]

Westin wrote: »

I find WHSmith, or the London News Company (which is them in disguise) to be the worst for demanding to see a boarding card. Even to buy a newspaper, which is VAT zero rated, they ask for a boarding card. Why?

At World Duty Free at Gatwick last month I attempted to by two bottles of water. My wife had wandered off and had the boarding passes in her bag. The cashier refused to serve me and process the transaction on two £1.09 bottles of water without a boarding card. The cashiers argument was that they like to track customer spend by flight and destination. Madness.

For years after WH Smith launched their honesty box for newspapers I used to get a copy of every single newspaper on offer - UK and foreign - and slip 10p in various coins into the box.
And even pick up the free bottle of water that came with the Telegraph.
Re-hydration and reading material for a long-haul flight for a pittance.
Happy days.

Blue264

Perhaps people are asked to distinguish passengers from airport employees.

Voyager2002

JollyGood wrote: »

Can someone please explain how this relates to the purchase of alcohol given that the allowance differs when travelling to various destinations (ie in/out of EU) so the purchase needs to be checked by producing the boarding card? Or are we saying that it is the job of customs to check this, not the shop?

It is the job of Customs at the passenger's destination to check this.

The shops are required to collect (and pass on to UK Customs) VAT and duty, UNLESS they can prove that the passenger was going somewhere outside the EU.

zagfles

On the BBC website today:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33873725