DialAFlight Describes ESTA as 'Hidden Tourist Tax' and Echoes Lewis Advice

LONDON, Aug. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- In the wake of America's announcement that from September 8th a $14 (9 pounds Sterling) fee will be charged to all travellers applying for the compulsory ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorisation), flight specialist DialAFlight is advising its customers to beat the charge by applying online whilst the authorisation is still free.

DialAFlight is one of the UK's leading travel companies and sends more than 50,000 customers to the US every year, offering great prices to a wide range of US destinations including flights to New York.  

ESTA was introduced in January 2009 and made mandatory in January 2010 replacing the green I-94 card that visitors could fill in on their flight.  The decision to start charging a $14 levy for the obligatory pre-approval has already come in for criticism from a number of sources including the EU, who claimed that the fee would complicate travel to the US, and Martin Lewis, of Moneysavingexpert who, like DialAFlight, has recommended that anyone who anticipates visiting the US should apply in the next month before the charge is rolled out.

Should your ESTA application be successful it will last for two years (or until your passport runs out) so even those with no imminent plans to travel to America could benefit from applying now to avoid the levy.

Peter Stephens, Managing Director of DialAFlight, said: 'This is simply a hidden US tourist tax.  The ESTA was introduced supposedly to speed up the immigration process, which we haven't noticed, and to aid their Homeland Security. We are advising our customers to go online this month while it is still free and complete a new ESTA (interestingly you don't have to find the previous one) which will be then valid for a two year period.'

About DialAFlight

DialAFlight is one of the UK's leading travel companies and has been in business for 30 years. Our sales people have 2000 collective years experience between them, and our buying power is second to none. Each year hundreds of thousands of people come to us for cheap flights, hotels, car hire, weekend breaks and business flights to many destinations including flights to USA.

For more information please visit http://www.DialAFlight.com.

SOURCE DialAFlight