I just did some back of the napkin calculations on actual fuel costs for the reported BOS-LHR. I find the OPs description difficult to follow, but assuming a 777 from BOS-LHR<p>6000 gallons / hour of flight<p>$3 / gallon (currently $2.92)<p>550 passengers / flight<p>6 hours flight time<p>Results in an actual fuel cost of $193.36.<p>I'm quite surprised to see that fuel really is a significant price of the total cost of a flight. I always thought the Fuel Surcharge thing was B.S.<p>However, I disagree that it should be allowed to be separated from the cost of the flight. The airline isn't buying the fuel the day you buy your ticket or the day you fly, they're buying the fuel the day they schedule the flight via futures (or if they aren't ,they should be). It also isn't something out of the ordinary in the day to day business. Here in Australia their is 'public holiday surcharges' where you have to pay a surcharge on public holidays because businesses have to pay their employees more.<p>There should be requirements on what can be permitted to be placed as a 'surcharge'. As I see it, there is nothing stopping an airline from doing a complete 'a la carte' offering where every item of your ticket is broken out as a separate charge, but unfortunately, you don't have the option to opt-out of any of it.