when I worked for a big computer consulting firm and traveled each week, I ignored the taxes...and only cared about the total cost. That's all the company cared about (and they didn't care much, they billed my traveling costs back to the customer)

Same with extra bag fees, getting in the front of the line fees and fees to sit in the big comfortable seats.

Some of that was annoying, because I couldn't justify those fees when traveling back to the customer...but flying twice a week and you get status and those fees are automagically waved anyway (and you upgrades to first class).

The only people these fees are going to affect are recreational travelers - and they're already price sensative anyway.

But I'm not sure why the government doesn't get to taxes these ancillary fees anyway. When I worked in international tax, governments who regularly tax anything and everything they felt like. (No joke, if you send packages from Mexico to Guat..they actually tax Mexico's tax.)

Shrug.