“Effective immediately”

The new buzz word of the travel industry. This is how the airlines are instituting new fuel surcharges. Here is an example of the lastest hike from one of the airlines:

1. For tickets sold in South Africa for travel on the following sectors:                         
LAX/SFO/LAS/TYO/SHA/SYD/MRU/JNB/CPT/HKG/BJS – LON and v.v  
Upper Class –                charge USD 261.00 per sector
Premium Economy –  charge USD 237.00 per sector
Economy –                      charge USD 213.00 per sector

This is “per sector” so lets put this in perspective: if you fly to New York via London the ticket will be a 4 sector flight ie JNB LON JFK LON JNB. This equates to US$852 or a rand value at todays rate of ZAR7000. This is just the fuel surcharge of the ticket, this excludes the “standard airport taxes”.