Flying Blue (Air France, KLM, and Other Partners) - No YQ on DL awards? How to book?

Dear all, looking at the FB on-line award booking engine it seems there is no POCASFOC (Part of operating cost arbitrarily separated from operating cost, I refuse to call it fuel surcharge) on DL flights ex US. How do I book those? Looking at NYC-BRU/PAR in November I can only see one DL award flight every ten days or so whereas AF/KL are available on a daily basis. Does anyone know whether the Flying Blue on-line booking tool accurately reflects DL availability? Will calling FB yield better results? Thanks, ps

Dear all, looking at the FB on-line award booking engine it seems there is no POCASFOC (Part of operating cost arbitrarily separated from operating cost, I refuse to call it fuel surcharge) on DL flights ex US. How do I book those? Looking at NYC-BRU/PAR in November I can only see one DL award flight every ten days or so whereas AF/KL are available on a daily basis. Does anyone know whether the Flying Blue on-line booking tool accurately reflects DL availability? Will calling FB yield better results? Thanks, ps

book online and don't ask too many questions about the Delta YQ! You can also use delta.com to search for the very limited Delta award availability.

If you see one DL flight every ten days, you're doing pretty well. I imagine this lack of YQ is a bug, so book now and ask questions later.

It's not a YQ charge. And I won't even go into that preposterous anagram above!

Delta charges an "International Originating Surcharge" for reward redemptions that start in Europe (and, probably, for most/all countries outside of the US/North America). It's a specific feature of SkyMiles.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta-skymiles/862589-international-originating-surcharge-skymiles-award-ticket.html

If you book a flight from Flying Blue with Flying Blue miles, you are subject to Flying Blue rules and fees, regardless of who the operating carrier is, and regardless of how much (in both miles and additional charges) that other carrier might charge in its own frequent flyer programme.

If you want to book the DL flights you found in the DL award tool on the terms presented on the DL award tool, then you need to get yourself some SkyMiles (via Amex MR transfer, for instance), and book via Delta.

It's not a YQ charge. And I won't even go into that preposterous anagram above!

Delta charges an "International Originating Surcharge" for reward redemptions that start in Europe (and, probably, for most/all countries outside of the US/North America). It's a specific feature of SkyMiles.


It is, in fact, a YQ charge. If you look at the technical coding of the taxes/fees on the receipt after booking, it's coded as YQ. Furthermore, the price matches the YQ on the matching revenue ticket. Because this practice predates DL separately publishing YQ on their revenue tickets, the way that the taxes/fees breakdown on a cash (international) ticket shows up gives the YQ as "Carrier-imposed International Surcharge". This is the exact same language used for the corresponding line item on an award ticket. In other words, "international surcharge" is DL-speak for "fuel surcharge".

The international surcharge for SkyMiles redemption is charged in the following circumstances:


All award tickets originating in Europe
All award tickets originating in the Middle East and containing travel on AF/KL (and likely AZ)
All award travel originating in the US on which the TPAC sector is operated by VA
All award travel operated by MH, CZ, MU, KQ, and CI (regardless of origin or destination)…there are probably other partners on this list, but we can't book anything other than AF/KL/AS/HA/AM online, so it's hard to be certain which are guaranteed YQ magnets.


Thus, you can book ex-Asia/Australia/Africa on DL metal (or AF/KL/AZ/KE metal for destinations they serve) without paying any YQ.

The international surcharge for SkyMiles redemption is charged in the following circumstances:


All award tickets originating in Europe
All award tickets originating in the Middle East and containing travel on AF/KL (and likely AZ)
All award travel originating in the US on which the TPAC sector is operated by VA
All award travel operated by MH, CZ, MU, KQ, and CI (regardless of origin or destination)…there are probably other partners on this list, but we can't book anything other than AF/KL/AS/HA/AM online, so it's hard to be certain which are guaranteed YQ magnets.


Thus, you can book ex-Asia/Australia/Africa on DL metal (or AF/KL/AZ/KE metal for destinations they serve) without paying any YQ.

And ex-North America, on any metal? It doesn't fall into the list or the exclusions set out above.

And ex-North America, on any metal? It doesn't fall into the list or the exclusions set out above.
ex-North America is just like ex-Asia/Australia/Africa. I was trying to resolve the "and, probably, for most/all countries outside of the US/North America" in your previous post so didn't mention it there. The only place you're going to get YQ regardless of metal is Europe. Out of NA, YQ is carrier-dependent.

I should add that my point 3 is the best info we have, but it appears from the limited VA inventory we've seen online, DL isn't collecting YQ for VA flights if the ticket originates in Australia, and someone even managed to get YYZ-hub-LAX-Oz on VA metal to price without YQ. Hence the statement about ex-US VA flights.