The Taxes You Can Reclaim on an Unused Ticket

Open your ticket receipt and look past the total. Most carriers itemise the base fare separately from a list of tax and fee codes, each two or three letters long, next to a small amount.

Air Passenger Duty in the United Kingdom, the German air transport tax, and similar charges in other countries are government levies tied to a passenger actually departing from that country's airports. They are collected by the airline on the government's behalf, not kept by the airline.

If you never fly, the government never collected a service from you, so the legal and practical basis for the charge disappears. Airlines are effectively holding money that belongs back with you, minus whatever administrative fee they are entitled to keep for processing the refund.

The base fare itself, meaning the price the airline charges for the seat, is a separate matter and follows whatever refund rules apply to that fare type. A non-refundable fare stays non-refundable for that portion, no matter how the taxes are treated.

• Baggage fees paid separately are typically not refundable this way
• Seat selection fees are usually treated as non-refundable extras
• Carrier-imposed surcharges are inconsistent, some airlines refund them and some do not
• Airport improvement fees in some countries are non-refundable by local law

Most airlines have a specific form for this, often labeled something like 'unused ticket taxes' or 'refund of unused government charges', separate from the general refund request form.

• Find the specific tax refund form, not the general refund page
• Enter your ticket number exactly as shown on the receipt
• State clearly that you are requesting only the government taxes and fees
• Attach the original ticket receipt showing the itemised breakdown

Processing times vary widely. Some airlines process a tax-only refund within two to three weeks, while others take two to three months, particularly if the request goes through a general customer service queue rather than a dedicated refunds team.

If you hear nothing after thirty days, follow up in writing rather than calling again, since a written follow-up creates a record that a phone call does not.

Yes, and this is one of the more overlooked cases. Award tickets on LATAM, ANA, or Emirates still carry the same category of government taxes even though the seat itself was booked with points rather than cash.

If an award ticket goes unused, request the tax refund the same way you would for a cash ticket. The miles themselves are typically redeposited separately, sometimes with a small redeposit fee, but the taxes follow the same logic as any other unused ticket.

On a multi-city itinerary, each segment can carry different departure taxes depending on the country. If you used the first segment but not the rest, only the unused portions are typically refundable, and the airline needs to recalculate which taxes applied to which leg.

This makes the request slightly more complex to process, so be specific in your request about exactly which segments were not flown, ideally quoting the flight numbers and dates directly.