Asiana Club - $650 in fees on award flight LAX-ICN-HND!

Just booked a business class flight for LAX-Seoul-HND-Seoul-LAX. Taxes and fuel surcharges were around $650. What is going on here?!?!?!?!

Because your final destination is Japan !

Japanese fuel surcharges are currently very high !

yeah. I figured that. They said it's $380 to Korea, but a 2-hr flight to/from Japan is $270. Wow!!!

Just booked a business class flight for LAX-Seoul-HND-Seoul-LAX. Taxes and fuel surcharges were around $650. What is going on here?!?!?!?!

That's the price you have to pay for these asian FF programs, if it is UA miles, even booking in F with the exact same routing of yours and also in OZ, the taxes would be less than $100 with ZERO fuel surcharge.

Like I said before, OZ is good for *G status, but not for anything else.

If you think that's bad, try BA & LHR... $1,100 in taxes/fees on a simple ORD-LHR F round-trip.

Ouch.

These are the new realities of FFP's.

And I'm not liking it one bit!! :p

Well, technically, my trip does have two stopovers, so I guess it's not too bad. It could be a lot worse.

Well, technically, my trip does have two stopovers, so I guess it's not too bad. It could be a lot worse.

Could be. Just booked SFO-FRA on LH and fees are $480 as a point of reference.

Something is wrong here. If adding up the fuel surcharges based on the rates from Korea, Korea-USA is 165 USD each way, and Korea-Japan is 27 USD each way, so a total of $384 for the round trip. Granted the fuel surcharge from USA to Korea might be calculated differently, but if anything I'd think it would be lower, not more. In checking the prices for purchasing tickets as two different tickets, looks like total fuel surcharge and other taxes/fees is $384.70 for the transpac and $103.50 for the Japan segment. If this is all on OZ, $650 is way too much and OZ made a mistake in my opinion in calculating the taxes/surcharge.

Guy Betsy's comment is totally wrong. Japan does have high fuel surcharges, but only for flights originating there, not for flights to Japan. I know based on actual experience as I have several flights booked for the upcoming months for XXX-ICN-JPN with OZ, and no high fuel surcharges at all. As long as you're booking it as one itinerary, then Japan fuel surcharges will not come into play. If you booked it as two one-ways, with one of them originating in Japan, then it would. Also, I'm assuming it's all on OZ. If you booked part of it on ANA or another airline, then the fuel surcharges might be different.

Something is wrong here. If adding up the fuel surcharges based on the rates from Korea, Korea-USA is 165 USD each way, and Korea-Japan is 27 USD each way, so a total of $384 for the round trip. Granted the fuel surcharge from USA to Korea might be calculated differently, but if anything I'd think it would be lower, not more. In checking the prices for purchasing tickets as two different tickets, looks like total fuel surcharge and other taxes/fees is $384.70 for the transpac and $103.50 for the Japan segment. If this is all on OZ, $650 is way too much and OZ made a mistake in my opinion in calculating the taxes/surcharge.

Guy Betsy's comment is totally wrong. Japan does have high fuel surcharges, but only for flights originating there, not for flights to Japan. I know based on actual experience as I have several flights booked for the upcoming months for XXX-ICN-JPN with OZ, and no high fuel surcharges at all. As long as you're booking it as one itinerary, then Japan fuel surcharges will not come into play. If you booked it as two one-ways, with one of them originating in Japan, then it would. Also, I'm assuming it's all on OZ. If you booked part of it on ANA or another airline, then the fuel surcharges might be different.
Thanks for the info. All segments are on OZ. I checked their website and looked at the taxes and fees for each segment. You're absolutely right! I did pay too much. I called them and they said to call back on Monday to speak to someone in Asiana Club since Reservations can't do anything about it. I wonder what their reasoning is going to be behind all this...

I know based on actual experience as I have several flights booked for the upcoming months for XXX-ICN-JPN with OZ, and no high fuel surcharges at all.

When where they booked?

It seems as though there have been many spikes in pricing recently. . .

All the foreign FFP's hit you with exorbitant YQ on award tickets, join mileage plus or dividend miles.

Guy Betsy's comment is totally wrong. Japan does have high fuel surcharges, but only for flights originating there, not for flights to Japan. I know based on actual experience as I have several flights booked for the upcoming months for XXX-ICN-JPN with OZ, and no high fuel surcharges at all.

US-Japan fuel surcharge is what OP should pay, not a combination of US-Korea and Korea-Japan, regardless of stopover, regardless of carrier combination. Currently US-Japan YQ is somewhere 250~288 USD each way, so $650 makes sense. I guess XXX (your origin) to Japan's YQ is low. If you search on ITA, we'll be able to find out.

US-Japan fuel surcharge is what OP should pay, not a combination of US-Korea and Korea-Japan, regardless of stopover, regardless of carrier combination. Currently US-Japan YQ is somewhere 250~288 USD each way, so $650 makes sense. I guess XXX (your origin) to Japan's YQ is low. If you search on ITA, we'll be able to find out.
Yes, technically, my final destination is indeed Japan. If what you're saying is true, then why is OZ making me pay US-Korea surcharges as well if my final destination is Japan? US-(Korea stop)-Japan should only be $500~$566, according to your calculations. Seems like they are charging me Korea-Japan twice since I'm already paying it. When I paid the fees, the CSR told me that US-Korea R/T was about $380 and Korea-Japan R/T was a whopping $270. On ITA, the surcharges for Korea-Japan R/T is ₩121,000 (~$108). But, when I book a USA-Korea-Japan itinerary on OZ, I'm getting ~$620. We'll see what happens on Monday.

When where they booked?

It seems as though there have been many spikes in pricing recently. . .

I booked some as recently as last month. Fuel surcharges have gone up in the past month, but not by that much.

US-Japan fuel surcharge is what OP should pay, not a combination of US-Korea and Korea-Japan, regardless of stopover, regardless of carrier combination. Currently US-Japan YQ is somewhere 250~288 USD each way, so $650 makes sense. I guess XXX (your origin) to Japan's YQ is low. If you search on ITA, we'll be able to find out.

Just had a look at that, and you're right. So perhaps I'm wrong about this with respect to flights originating in the USA. If so, my apologies. Doesn't make much sense though to me why such a huge discrepancy like this is allowed.

Yes, technically, my final destination is indeed Japan. If what you're saying is true, then why is OZ making me pay US-Korea surcharges as well if my final destination is Japan? US-(Korea stop)-Japan should only be $500~$566, according to your calculations. Seems like they are charging me Korea-Japan twice since I'm already paying it. When I paid the fees, the CSR told me that US-Korea R/T was about $380 and Korea-Japan R/T was a whopping $270. On ITA, the surcharges for Korea-Japan R/T is ₩121,000 (~$108). But, when I book a USA-Korea-Japan itinerary on OZ, I'm getting ~$620. We'll see what happens on Monday.

You're paying US-Japan surcharge only, and once.

Although CSR told you that Korea-Japan YQ is $270, it actually means that because you're adding Korea-Japan, the difference between US-Japan YQ and US-Korea YQ is $270, and that's what you have to pay just because you're adding Korea-Japan.


Doesn't make much sense though to me why such a huge discrepancy like this is allowed.

Well, whole YQ system is a crap. They can charge literally any amount they want, because ordinary people doesn't know what's going on.

I took a harder look at this, being it's quite important to me flying OZ a lot, and will be making numerous trips to Japan in the near future. I know the Korean government regulates the YQ that Korean carriers can charge for flights ex-Korea, and I believe in Japan it is similar. This only applies though to national flag carriers, and not to foreign airlines. The Korean government does not regulate Korean carriers for flights originating outside Korea. I do not know if Japan does for their carriers or not.

Here is the YQ I found charged by various carriers:

Tokyo - LAX (Priced in JPY)
JL/NH 50,000 + 600
OZ 50,000 + 360
UA 50,000
SQ 28,000 + 100
KE 160

LAX - Tokyo (Priced in USD)
JL/NH 576 + 6.40
UA 576
OZ 520 + 3.60
SQ 280 + 1.20
KE 1.80 (Direct) 3.60 (if via Korea)

Tokyo - BKK (priced in JPY)
NH/JL 26,000 + 600
OZ 26,000 + 360
UA 26,000
TG 16,520 + 840
KE 320

BKK - Tokyo (Priced in THB)
NH/JL 9,240 + 200
UA 5,480
TG 5,300 + 310
OZ 4,800 + 120
KE 120

In looking at these figures, it appears that the most important point is where the flight originates, and whether the airline is governed by it's country's regulations or not. NH and JL seem to have identical YQ on all routes. KE and OZ will have identical YQ on all routes originating in Korea, but vastly different YQ on routes not originating in Korea.

OZ and UA both match the Japanese carriers for flights originating in Japan. For flights originating in the USA, UA matches the Japanese carriers, but OZ doesn't quite, though close. For flights originating in Thailand, there seems to be absolutely no connection between what the airlines charge, other than as always, NH and JL match each other.

I find it interesting (and annoying) that while OZ normally follows in KE footsteps, in this case they have chosen to introduce extremely high YQ charges all around, where they evidently are under no regulations to do such. This would be one case where I would welcome them to follow KE's example and charge a negligible YQ.

For USA-Japan, KE is charging it's negligible YQ for each segment, thus double if routing via Korea. OZ, as per the topic of this thread, is charging an absolutely ridiculous amount - much more than even the combined YQ.

BKK-ICN-JPY is one of the tickets I've recently purchased and is an example of my XXX-ICN-JPY, where there is no huge increase for adding on JPY as the destination. In fact, for BKK-ICN-BKK, YQ is 4,400 + 60 THB, so only 400 + 60 THB increase for adding on the two extra segments to/from Japan.

One interesting combination is flying OZ LAX-ICN and ICN-LAX and NH ICN -JPY and JPY-ICN. In this case the YQ comes to:
OZ YQ $300 + $1.80
NH YQ $6.40
Thus much cheaper YQ if you only use OZ for your transpac.

Thanks to all for the great info. If there's an upside to this (hard to imagine at this point), my segment to/from Japan didn't cost me any additional miles...sort of. I had a 10k mile certificate that I had forgotten about. The CSR reminded me about it, so I added Japan to my itinerary for just 10k. That certificate would have expired if I didn't use it in the next few months.

That's the price you have to pay for these asian FF programs, if it is UA miles, even booking in F with the exact same routing of yours and also in OZ, the taxes would be less than $100 with ZERO fuel surcharge.

Like I said before, OZ is good for *G status, but not for anything else.
<$100? Where are you getting these figures?

I'm wondering, UA for departing from the USA matches the fuel surcharges for NH/JL. When did UA start charging this YQ? Is it something new? And even though they charge this high YQ on revenue tickets, do they exempt award tickets? I could be wrong, but I thought as of last year UA wasn't charging this kind of YQ on revenue tickets. So if it's something new, perhaps they're charging it on award tickets now also. Any comments with very recent direct or indirect experience with UA awards would be interesting.

Thanks to all for the great info. If there's an upside to this (hard to imagine at this point), my segment to/from Japan didn't cost me any additional miles...sort of. I had a 10k mile certificate that I had forgotten about. The CSR reminded me about it, so I added Japan to my itinerary for just 10k. That certificate would have expired if I didn't use it in the next few months.

Is there any way you can change from an OZ award to a *A award, and if so would it cost you a similar amount of miles? I'm asking because it looks to me that if you use NH for your Japan segments, your fuel surcharge will be significantly lower. If you don't need a lot more miles, that might be something to ask OZ about when they get back to you today.

Tokyo - LAX (Priced in JPY)
JL/NH 50,000 + 600
OZ 50,000 + 360
UA 50,000
SQ 28,000 + 100
KE 160


One little thing you're missing is that, KE's YQ is indeed 160yen, but if you look further how the price is composed (fare construction), there's Q321.75 (one way) inside, and this is KE's fuel surcharge. YQ might mean something else in this case.

I said regardless of carrier, YQ is the same, but it's actually not true. Some people say UA charges less and LH charges more, but I'm not sure. You can book *A award on Asiana website, so you can figure out how Asiana handles other airline's surcharges.

Well, whether an airline charges for fuel as a separate surcharge, or as part of the fare, doesn't really matter when buying a revenue ticket - you end up paying the same. Where it's very important is when booking award travel. A Korean friend told me last year that she booked an award ticket on KE from LAX to ICN, and I asked her how much she paid in surcharges. She told me she paid nothing. So provided this was accurate, and KE is still doing this, I applaud their policy. That is the way all airlines should operate. The fuel surcharges on award tickets I consider to be nothing short of criminal, other than there evidently aren't laws prohibiting it. There should though be laws criminalizing such business practices, IMHO.

Now for KE's fare construction, when I checked a direct flight from LAX to NRT for March departure, I only saw Q250, not Q321.75 as you mentioned. But when changing to LAX to HND, which then connects in ICN, there's two separate amounts in the one-way, Q150 and Q27 which is the fuel for each component. So KE again seems to be doing it proper, and composing their fare based on the sum of whatever their fuel charges are per sector, and not based on just the departure and arrival points.

As for trying to book a *A award on OZ's website to find out the fuel surcharges, I'm not sure enough of my Korean to attempt that, without perhaps actually booking a ticket which I cannot undo, or will need to call them to undo. So I guess I'll leave that to someone else more adept at using their Korean website.

As for trying to book a *A award on OZ's website to find out the fuel surcharges, I'm not sure enough of my Korean to attempt that, without perhaps actually booking a ticket which I cannot undo, or will need to call them to undo. So I guess I'll leave that to someone else more adept at using their Korean website.

I forgot that Asiana redemption website is only in Korean. Shame. YQ system is complicated - I decided to step back and collect miles only on UA & AA :)

<$100? Where are you getting these figures?

Myself (read some of my trip reports)

And also UA board and other trip reports where people use UA miles for their awards.


I'm wondering, UA for departing from the USA matches the fuel surcharges for NH/JL. When did UA start charging this YQ? Is it something new? And even though they charge this high YQ on revenue tickets, do they exempt award tickets? I could be wrong, but I thought as of last year UA wasn't charging this kind of YQ on revenue tickets. So if it's something new, perhaps they're charging it on award tickets now also. Any comments with very recent direct or indirect experience with UA awards would be interesting.

Correct, award ticket is exempt from any YQ with UA miles. In the years past, you would not even believe for a US>South Asia award on SQ F, (nonstop on SQ1/SQ2), the taxes only come to less than $50, and that's all I paid. But even as of last November I booked again with my UA miles, US>Japan one way award in F was $38.92. Japan>South Asian one way F award $25.59.

UA do charge YQ on revenue tickets, like the base fare on US>Asia sometimes would only be $600, but the final price you price would be $1100. However, for revenue tickets out of Asia to US, tickets are usually much higher, though I am not exactly sure if the base fare or YQ are a lot higher out of Asia or not.

The OP posted subject showed up and I clicked and I thought for sure I would end up in the British Airways FF program discussion board;)

Well, whether an airline charges for fuel as a separate surcharge, or as part of the fare, doesn't really matter when buying a revenue ticket - you end up paying the same. Where it's very important is when booking award travel. A Korean friend told me last year that she booked an award ticket on KE from LAX to ICN, and I asked her how much she paid in surcharges. She told me she paid nothing. So provided this was accurate, and KE is still doing this, I applaud their policy. That is the way all airlines should operate. The fuel surcharges on award tickets I consider to be nothing short of criminal, other than there evidently aren't laws prohibiting it. There should though be laws criminalizing such business practices, IMHO.

Now for KE's fare construction, when I checked a direct flight from LAX to NRT for March departure, I only saw Q250, not Q321.75 as you mentioned. But when changing to LAX to HND, which then connects in ICN, there's two separate amounts in the one-way, Q150 and Q27 which is the fuel for each component. So KE again seems to be doing it proper, and composing their fare based on the sum of whatever their fuel charges are per sector, and not based on just the departure and arrival points.

As for trying to book a *A award on OZ's website to find out the fuel surcharges, I'm not sure enough of my Korean to attempt that, without perhaps actually booking a ticket which I cannot undo, or will need to call them to undo. So I guess I'll leave that to someone else more adept at using their Korean website.

KE DOES charge you exactly same amount of FS(which is set by Korean government) as OZ, for your award ticket-I have done this many times. In regards of FFP policies, KE and OZ copies each other on every single thing.

Myself (read some of my trip reports)

And also UA board and other trip reports where people use UA miles for their awards.
Show me where I would only pay $100 if I had UA miles and I booked a flight from LAX-HND with a stopover in Korea. Have you ever booked a flight like this?

Just booked a business class flight for LAX-Seoul-HND-Seoul-LAX. Taxes and fuel surcharges were around $650. What is going on here?!?!?!?!
Ok. So I spoke to OZ. I'm stuck with these charges. They kept saying that it's $651.50. I asked if that was correct since both ITA and their own website state charges of about $620. They said that they wouldn't know the exact charges until the reservation was booked, but they were confident that $651.50 is probably the correct charges. They then transferred me to their Rates Dept, which pretty much said the same thing. Oh well. Time to find a new airline. lol.

Just checked AA.com and LAX-NRT-LAX J is 100K plus $51.10 in taxes and fees.
SFO-HKG a couple weeks ago in CX First was an outrageous $2.50 in taxes and fees. :cool:

Just checked AA.com and LAX-NRT-LAX J is 100K plus $51.10 in taxes and fees.
SFO-HKG a couple weeks ago in CX First was an outrageous $2.50 in taxes and fees. :cool:
Does Oneworld do LAX-ICN-NRT R/T? Or is it LAX-NRT-ICN-NRT R/T? I am thinking that none of their partners do LAX-ICN nonstop.

Show me where I would only pay $100 if I had UA miles and I booked a flight from LAX-HND with a stopover in Korea. Have you ever booked a flight like this?

You can do a dummy booking on united.com

There is no such thing of LAX-HND with a stopover in ICN, it is LAX-ICN with a stopover in HND.

Exact routing like yours no, but there is no difference regarding miles and taxes for any US>Japan awards. (unless you have more layover airports, the more layover airports, the more taxes would be, but it would still be under $100)

The one way US > Japan F award I was paying for $38.92 would be a lot less if it was only 1 stop or nonstop, as I had 4 stops including routing thru FRA.


Does Oneworld do LAX-ICN-NRT R/T? Or is it LAX-NRT-ICN-NRT R/T? I am thinking that none of their partners do LAX-ICN nonstop.

*A or skyteam only.

You can do a dummy booking on united.com

There is no such thing of LAX-HND with a stopover in ICN, it is LAX-ICN with a stopover in HND.

...
What are you talking about? Of course there are flights from ICN to HND.

That's the price you have to pay for these asian FF programs, if it is UA miles, even booking in F with the exact same routing of yours and also in OZ, the taxes would be less than $100 with ZERO fuel surcharge.

Like I said before, OZ is good for *G status, but not for anything else.
I would still like for you to show me where I can book business LAX - Seoul (stopover) - Tokyo R/T for ~110K miles and less than $650 fees with UA miles. It sounds like you are confident such a trip exists for UA members since you believe UA's program is FAR superior to OZ's.

From my calculations, a dummy booking on UA comes out to a minimum of 160K UA miles and $120 fees. I don't know if I did it right, but I'm hoping it's much less than that since I do have some UA miles to redeem in the near future for possibly the same itinerary. 160K miles seems a bit much, though.

Although the much lower fees are great, the extra 50K miles needed for the exact itinerary is :td:. If you can find my itinerary for 110K UA miles and less than $650 in fees, that would be great. If you can't, then your comment about OZ being only good for gold status is completely false.

I would still like for you to show me where I can book business LAX - Seoul (stopover) - Tokyo R/T for ~110K miles and less than $650 fees with UA miles. It sounds like you are confident such a trip exists for UA members since you believe UA's program is FAR superior to OZ's.

From my calculations, a dummy booking on UA comes out to a minimum of 160K UA miles and $120 fees. I don't know if I did it right, but I'm hoping it's much less than that since I do have some UA miles to redeem in the near future for possibly the same itinerary. 160K miles seems a bit much, though.

Of course I am confident about what I am saying, done that so many times. And even if you don't believe what I said, you can post a thread on the UA forum and ask if what I am saying is true or not, or just simply pick up the phone and call UA, what's so hard to find out for yourself ? :rolleyes:

Well I can tell you you did it wrong, you didn't even do a dummy booking on UA, as US > North Asia is 120K miles for C awards period. F award don't even cost 160K.

http://www.united.com/web/en-US/apps/mileageplus/awards/travel/awardTravel.aspx

P.S. Star Alliance awards are saver awards only, only UA metal awards have standard awards.

Oh btw, since you are UA non-elite, you have to add $75 if you book your award less than 21 days before departure. For the award that is more than 21 days ahead, this is what you have to pay.

Taxes/Fees
September 11th Security Fee $5.00
Japan Passenger Security Service Charge $6.00
Japan Passenger Service Facilities Charge $24.60
Korea Departure Tax $24.70
U.S. Customs User Fee $5.50
U.S. Immigration User Fee $7.00
U.S. APHIS User Fee $5.00

Certain taxes/fees list above are included in the originally quoted price.

1 Award 120,000 Miles

Additional Taxes/Fees $77.80

120,000 Miles and $77.80


Tue., Apr. 17, 2012 | Los Angeles, CA (LAX) to Tokyo, Japan (HND - Haneda)

Depart:
12:40 a.m.
Tue., Apr. 17, 2012
Los Angeles, CA (LAX)

Arrive:
5:00 a.m. +1 Day
Wed., Apr. 18, 2012
Tokyo, Japan (HND - Haneda)

Travel Time:
12 hr 20 mn

Flight: NH1005
Operated by ANA All Nippon Airways.
Aircraft: Boeing 777-200ER
Fare Class: Business (I)
Meal: Meal
No Special Meal Offered.

Tue., Apr. 24, 2012 | Tokyo, Japan (NRT - Narita) to Seoul, Republic of South Korea (ICN - Incheon)

Depart:
1:30 p.m.
Tue., Apr. 24, 2012
Tokyo, Japan (NRT - Narita)

Arrive:
4:00 p.m.
Tue., Apr. 24, 2012
Seoul, Republic of South Korea (ICN - Incheon)

Travel Time:
2 hr 30 mn

Flight: OZ103
Operated by Asiana Airlines.
Aircraft: Boeing 777-200ER
Fare Class: Business (I)
Meal: None

Tue., May. 8, 2012 | Seoul, Republic of South Korea (ICN - Incheon) to Los Angeles, CA (LAX)

Depart:
5:00 p.m.
Tue., May. 8, 2012
Seoul, Republic of South Korea (ICN - Incheon)

Arrive:
11:17 a.m.
Tue., May. 8, 2012
San Francisco, CA (SFO)

Flight Time:
10 hr 17 mn

Flight: UA892
Aircraft: Boeing 747-400
Fare Class: United BusinessFirst (IN)
Meal: Dinner
No Special Meal Offered.

Change Planes. Connect time in San Francisco, CA (SFO) is 1 hour 28 minutes.

Depart:
12:45 p.m.
Tue., May. 8, 2012
San Francisco, CA (SFO)

Arrive:
2:13 p.m.
Tue., May. 8, 2012
Los Angeles, CA (LAX)

Flight Time:
1 hr 28 mn

Travel Time:
13 hr 13 mn

Flight: UA1136
Aircraft: Boeing 737-500
Fare Class: United Economy (X)
Meal: None

Of course I am confident about what I am saying, done that so many times. And even if you don't believe what I said, you can post a thread on the UA forum and ask if what I am saying is true or not, or just simply pick up the phone and call UA, what's so hard to find out for yourself ? :rolleyes:

Well I can tell you you did it wrong, you didn't even do a dummy booking on UA, as US > North Asia is 120K miles for C awards period. F award don't even cost 160K.
...
Well, for one thing, what makes you think I haven't already called UA? :rolleyes: And, since YOU were so adamant about booking the same flight with just 10K more miles and ~$100, I wanted YOU to show me how it can be done. More importantly, your itinerary doesn't even answer my question, although I appreciate the time you took to post it. You have LAX-Tokyo-Seoul-SFO-LAX. As previously mentioned, mine is LAX-Seoul-Tokyo-Seoul-LAX. That's a huge difference. It's not even close to what I want/have. Again, are you still confident that you can book this with 120K UA miles? I don't think so. Still looks like 160K UA miles + $120. Mine is 110K + $650.

Interestingly, using AA miles on JL SFO-NRT-SFO in Executive / Business, my total cost was USD $45.60 (mid-January); as it was for someone else, I alaso paid the $25telephone booking fee (if it had been for me, no 'phone fee).

Just pulled up the following united.com:

4/17: OZ201 LAX-ICN
4/24: OZ102 ICN-NRT
5/2: NH6 NRT-LAX

All in business and was quoted 120k miles and $125 in taxes and fees.

Just pulled up the following united.com:

4/17: OZ201 LAX-ICN
4/24: OZ102 ICN-NRT
5/2: NH6 NRT-LAX

All in business and was quoted 120k miles and $125 in taxes and fees.
Thanks. But, as I said before, that's not the same as LAX-Korea (stopover)-Tokyo-Korea (stopover)-LAX. You are still missing NRT-ICN.

deleted

Thanks. But, as I said before, that's not the same as LAX-Korea (stopover)-Tokyo-Korea (stopover)-LAX. You are still missing NRT-ICN.

Oops. Sorry, I missed the part about the second stopover on the return. Then I don't think it's possible to do this on one award with UA since you are only allowed one stopover on a roundtrip award. The alternate option would be LAX-ICN(stopover)-NRT//ICN-LAX and then buy a one-way ticket from TYO-SEL. But those look like they're pretty darn expensive too.

In the end, while that's still a lot to pay in taxes and fees, it doesn't seem like you could have done much better anywhere else.

Deleted a few posts where members got personal. Please remember the golden rule on FT: comment on the topic, not the posting member. Any violations will followed up with discipline from this point on.

Regards Oliver2002
Senior Mod

Oops. Sorry, I missed the part about the second stopover on the return. Then I don't think it's possible to do this on one award with UA since you are only allowed one stopover on a roundtrip award. The alternate option would be LAX-ICN(stopover)-NRT//ICN-LAX and then buy a one-way ticket from TYO-SEL. But those look like they're pretty darn expensive too.

In the end, while that's still a lot to pay in taxes and fees, it doesn't seem like you could have done much better anywhere else.
I guess I have to find a way to do that kind of trip with a different carrier. I still doesn't make sense that OZ allows it but no other *A does.

I guess I have to find a way to do that kind of trip with a different carrier. I still doesn't make sense that OZ allows it but no other *A does.

I did a quick check (obviously not going to check all of *A) but it looks like both TG and NH allow it. TG says one stopover in each direction. NH says up to 4 stopovers, though it sounds like they're saying 1 of those "stopovers" is the destination. The rules seem to be buried in the terms and conditions so it's not always easy to find the information. And they can have differences in rules between awards on the airlines own metal vs. *A awards.

There are lots of programs that can produce a very cheap Tokyo-Seoul ticket. Im sure you know US is only 90k for the same flights as well.

I did a quick check (obviously not going to check all of *A) but it looks like both TG and NH allow it. TG says one stopover in each direction. NH says up to 4 stopovers, though it sounds like they're saying 1 of those "stopovers" is the destination. The rules seem to be buried in the terms and conditions so it's not always easy to find the information. And they can have differences in rules between awards on the airlines own metal vs. *A awards.
Thanks! I will look into TG and NH.

There are lots of programs that can produce a very cheap Tokyo-Seoul ticket. Im sure you know US is only 90k for the same flights as well.
Yup. Know about US Airways. Thanks!

If I use Asiana miles to redeem some UA flights, do I still need pay this high Tax/Fuel Surcharge? Thanks

In my experience, no. When I booked a combination Asiana/UA award, I was only charged the regular high fuel surcharge on the OZ portion. But I don't know if that applies to all possible itineraries/routes/combinations.

In my experience, no. When I booked a combination Asiana/UA award, I was only charged the regular high fuel surcharge on the OZ portion. But I don't know if that applies to all possible itineraries/routes/combinations.

I am not 100% certain, but I think when it is the UA part for the domestic US portion only no fuel surcharge, similiar with using NH AMC miles.

Well, my booking was two international flights, first with OZ, connecting to a UA flight, and return the same way, first UA and connecting to OZ. No domestic flights involved, and the fees on the UA portion were very minimal, just airport taxes, etc, no fuel surcharge that I could detect. The fuel surcharge for the OZ portion was the standard surcharge charged for that portion of my trip, not on the entire trip.

Tue., May. 8, 2012 | Seoul, Republic of South Korea (ICN - Incheon) to Los Angeles, CA (LAX)

Depart:
5:00 p.m.
Tue., May. 8, 2012
Seoul, Republic of South Korea (ICN - Incheon)

Arrive:
11:17 a.m.
Tue., May. 8, 2012
San Francisco, CA (SFO)

Flight Time:
10 hr 17 mn

Flight: UA892
Aircraft: Boeing 747-400
Fare Class: United BusinessFirst (IN)
Meal: Dinner
No Special Meal Offered.



Since when did UA have two-class 747s? Or is that what they're calling international business these days? (which btw is a terrible idea-it implies that first is overrated)

Since when did UA have two-class 747s? Or is that what they're calling international business these days? (which btw is a terrible idea-it implies that first is overrated)

Since the beginning of this year when both MP and OP combined. That's correct, it is confused the hell out of people not familiar with UA. And on PMUA routes with PMUA, even it called United BusinessFirst, the service is nowhere compare to PMCO Business First.

3 class international: United Global First, United Business First, United Economy Plus, United Economy.

http://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/travel/inflight/first.aspx

http://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/travel/inflight/business/default.aspx

However, when 3 class planes fly domestic, it remain United First, United Business, etc.

In my experience, no. When I booked a combination Asiana/UA award, I was only charged the regular high fuel surcharge on the OZ portion. But I don't know if that applies to all possible itineraries/routes/combinations.
It depends on the partner. UA and US don't have YQ, most (all?) others do. I have a *A award booked with OZ miles, and when I tried to use LH or LX or SK or AC, cash portion would jump to $400-$500 each way, mostly due to YQ (this is in C). Sticking to UA and US for the TATL legs and using LH only for intra-European flights reduced YQ to $86.

Since the beginning of this year when both MP and OP combined. That's correct, it is confused the hell out of people not familiar with UA. And on PMUA routes with PMUA, even it called United BusinessFirst, the service is nowhere compare to PMCO Business First.

Well, I've seen various cases of airlines using bad names for their various classes, but this has to be the most ridiculous ever. Are the people at UA insane? That is totally unbelievable that they would even think of using a confusing name like that. Even for someone like myself, who's a very frequent flyer, but doesn't fly UA that often, seeing the term, "BusinessFirst" I have absolutely no idea what sort of class it is. Not that it'll matter any, but I think I'll fire off an email to UA and tell them I will in the future not be giving them anymore business until they get rid of whoever the idiot is who dreamed that up and change the name back to something understandable.

Ok, being it's the OZ forum, to keep it on topic, their decision to name economy, 'travel class' also stinks, but at least they chose a name that wouldn't create supreme confusion by combining the names of two existing classes.

I can also see that there's no fuel surcharge for UA trans-pacific flights using OZ miles. BA has this kind of thread, and Asiana should have one, too.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1301906-baec-partner-redemptions-no-fuel-surcharges.html

I can also see that there's no fuel surcharge for UA trans-pacific flights using OZ miles. BA has this kind of thread, and Asiana should have one, too.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1301906-baec-partner-redemptions-no-fuel-surcharges.html

Last week I booked a UA award ticket in C for SFO-ICN-DEL (one-way, all on OZ, travelling in Dec) and the taxes/fees came to a whopping $34.20 total for 3 pax!! That is $11.40 pp (just saying for effect, not implying that others can't do the math :-). Though on the way back, it is DEL-FRA-SFO-MOD on LH/UA (again in C booked using UA miles) and the taxes/fees were $262.95 (total for 3 pax) and I was somewhat unhappy about it. But after reading what other airlines are charging, I don't feel as bad.