Flying Blue (Air France, KLM, and Other Partners) - Taxes on FB award ticket on DL flights has gone up after May 22

In January, I redeemed FB miles for DL flights BKK-LAX-BKK, taxes/charges was about $150, which was consistent with what I heard late last year that FB eliminated crazy fuel surcharge when redeeming for only Delta flights.

On May 22 (two weeks ago), I redeemed FB miles again for DL flight BKK-LAX one way, and taxes was $75.

On May 31, I tried to redeem FB miles for another RT ticket BKK-LAX-BKK on DL, and tax calculation now shows $520. I asked them to check with their supervisor and I even asked them to look at the ticket I just redeemed on May 22, they said this is what the system told me and they are unable to change the tax amount.

Does anyone know this crazy change after May 22 and why taxes triple?

In January, I redeemed FB miles for DL flights BKK-LAX-LAX, taxes/charges was about $150, which was consistent with what I heard late last year that FB eliminated crazy fuel surcharge when redeeeming for only Delta flights.

On May 22 (two weeks ago), I redeemed FB miles again for DL flight BKK-LAX one way, and taxes was $75.

On May 31, I tried to redeem FB miles for another RT ticket BKK-LAX-BKK on DL, and tax calculation now shows $520. I asked them to check with their supervisor and I even asked them to look at the ticket I just redeemed on May 22, they said this is what the system told me and they are unable to change the tax amount.

Does anyone know this crazy change after May 22 and why taxes triple?

I just did a few dummy bookings and saw taxes in the $100 range. Not sure when your dates of travel are, but someone might have made a mistake.

I just did a few dummy bookings and saw taxes in the $100 range. Not sure when your dates of travel are, but someone might have made a mistake.

Thank you for your note, I called FB again (now instead of FB Canada/US, I called FB Thailand) and showed them that the website shows $114 taxes for BKK-LAX-BKK. They said their system still shows $520. I would have done online myself but the dates I already booked only had one seat left which I took when booking via FB Call center, and cancelling it doens't gaurantee the seats will come back for me to book online.

However, the agent said she will open a case for investigation to FB HQ to identify why there is such a large discrepancy on tax. They put in a code on my booking to prevent it from being cancelled.

I will post the result once the investigation is complete.

I'm interested to hear how it turns out.

To prevent it from being canceled? Can they even do that (cause that basically changes the fare terms)?

Just a question, are you sure you aren't booked via CDG? If you routing went that way even one way the mileage cost stays the same but the the surcharges skyrocket.

I was also able to do a test and got about 60 EUR one-way via the Pacific.

Just a question, are you sure you aren't booked via CDG? If you routing went that way even one way the mileage cost stays the same but the the surcharges skyrocket.


If it's a connection via CDG that taxes shouldn't be that much higher. Certainly not $400+ USD.

As a guessing man, I'd say that they're trying to add YQ into the ticket now.

If it's a connection via CDG that taxes shouldn't be that much higher. Certainly not $400+ USD.

As a guessing man, I'd say that they're trying to add YQ into the ticket now.

I see 60 EUR one way via the Pacific and 238 EUR via CDG. Going via CDG would add YQ because its an AF flt. And, 170 EUR is equal to 215 dollars. The return flight was a little more expensive because of airport taxes.

After two weeks following the investigation sent to FB HQ, I called to follow up with the same agent, she gave me good news saying that the taxes should be $140, and not $500+. She cannot tell me why the system still gives the wrong amount but she has an authorization to charge me only $140, got the ticket issued. Luckily, Delta has never cancelled this booking after not having been issued for over a month. The 'TKOK' code FB put in really helped !!

And yes these are flights with Delta from BKK to LAX via NRT, then to SFO, and back to BKK via LAX and NRT. So, nothing via Europe and $500+ taxes would not be correct.

Just imagine if I had not redeemed another ticket back in Jan, I would not have known the $500+ was out of line since flying via Europe would usually cost this much in taxes.

Interesting timing on your posts. I had a very crazy experience booking an award in the last two days.

Booked three tix on DL US-DL-AMS-KL-ZRH in business online. 50k per tix, plus 30.06€ taxes. Booking went through and finalized, generated a record locator, but on the last page mentioned a problem with payment asking me to phone in.

I did the next morning, and the agent put me on hold for a way too long time. When she came back she had repriced the taxes to a whopping 350€ each (one-way US-Europe ...). Requested supervisor, who hid behind her and refused to take my call. I made clear I had accepted their offer, and we had a binding contract in place where they could not change the price like that after I had confirmed. I insisted there were many fligths offered like that, and cited the remarkt that YQ had been removed on some European flights. They insisted it was a website bug, and that nobody would be able to issue the ticket at lower taxes because the booking froze for the reason of icnorrect pricing. Their system could not do it. After some insisting agent said I had 72 hours to resolve by written complaint then the booking would expire ....

Shocked as I was, I wrote a matter-of-fact fax reconfirming my ticket purchase at 50k plus 31.06, setting a time-limit within they would have to contest in writing otherwise contrat would be binding. I opened a file with my legal insurance and attached a copy. I also mentioned that I considered the booking confirm and would take action in case of refused boarding.

Magically I got a call from complaints department today (2 days after online booking, which I consider incredibly fast after 10 years of bad experiences) and they issued the tickets at 31.06 Euro taxes. Lady was friendly, so was I. She understood why I wrote in legalese way and apologized for the bother ...

It's a shame they keep trying to rip us off on YQ. It's a shame they can't get their website right. It's a shame I have to use harsh legalese language to get what should be a non-issue and basic service. But at least they got it right this time, and I give credit for that.

This leads me to another question - Is it a pattern that the payment page returns a message to call in on longhaul DL bookings, or was I just unlucky that I had to call?

If the bookings normally work online for other folks on DL with no YQ, I recommend to book quickly before they increase the cost factor 12x to 15x.

Shocked as I was, I wrote a matter-of-fact fax reconfirming my ticket purchase at 50k plus 31.06, setting a time-limit within they would have to contest in writing otherwise contrat would be binding. I opened a file with my legal insurance and attached a copy. I also mentioned that I considered the booking confirm and would take action in case of refused boarding.


(bolds and colours mine) Everyone to their own and I'm glad it worked for you, but it's on days like those I'm just really glad I don't live in the US any more! :)

If the ticket was issued with miles withdrawn and credit card charged, I would agree that there is a contract and they need to respect it. However, if just the reservation was confirmed but without ticket, there is no contract and I think that is what happened when the website asked you to call to finalise the purchase/contract. You got very lucky, I would not have been impressed by your over-legalised letter as it sounds it is pure rubbish. That it is bad customer service, bad IT, yes, I agree, but nothing illegal.

Guys, understand your points and would probably take the same view on another occasion. (Am not in US by the way...).

A few years of history with Flying Blue and too many times that they got away with bad service or pure wrondoing made me act that way. Weird thing is it worked and my normal friendly common-sense approach ususally did not.

(I am not a lawyer and never intended to test if I had a real solid case or not. What they do is wrong and I made clear I would not be treated like that.)

Maybe should not have posted this, but Flying Blue has really done their best to consistently increase my frustratation since the perish of Flying Dutchman. So I tried something else this time, excuse me for the bad example. Am really happy too have used a small part of my mileage which I feel burning under my but. Otherwise never found a good use as they charge so much more surcharge than other programs.

OT, but the new European scheme looks OK in economy but availibilty got so bad for my routes it seems pointless.

<snip> I wrote a matter-of-fact fax reconfirming my ticket purchase at 50k plus 31.06, setting a time-limit within they would have to contest in writing otherwise contrat would be binding. I opened a file with my legal insurance and attached a copy. I also mentioned that I considered the booking confirm and would take action in case of refused boarding.

Magically I got a call from complaints department today (2 days after online booking, which I consider incredibly fast after 10 years of bad experiences) and they issued the tickets at 31.06 Euro taxes. Lady was friendly, so was I. She understood why I wrote in legalese way and apologized for the bother ...

It's a shame they keep trying to rip us off on YQ. It's a shame they can't get their website right. It's a shame I have to use harsh legalese language to get what should be a non-issue and basic service. But at least they got it right this time, and I give credit for that.

I had a similar a situation some time back -- no movement (or rational responses) on an outrageous "tax" calculation until I threatened to sue, then like magic things got very much cheaper. Summary of the facts is here (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/3535949-post6.html).

It's too bad when one has to threaten to sue in order to get proper treatment from them.