Fuel Surcharges on EK Reward Tickets
 

Just got this email (titled 'Programme Updates'):

Not a good trend, especially considering the mileage increase in reward costs since the last devaluation, is it?

Apologies if this has already been posted.

This is outrageous, just received the email as well. From a mileage requirement perspective, EK had already significantly lost ground in recent years. The introduction of fuel surcharges on awards removes the most important counterbalancing element which made it acceptable to me to credit miles to Skywards, despite the lack of redemption competitiveness compared to many other programs. Let's see what amount of surcharge they will charge.

Adding insult to injury, the explanation provided in the email does not take us passengers serious: "Given the volatility of the fuel price, it is no longer possible for Emirates to absorb this cost on Skywards Reward tickets."

Thank you, Antinori! :td:

Not impressed by the way this has been conveyed, this announcement is just tied onto the end of the email - after detailing previously announced information (use of lounges etc). Just be upfront and send us the decision, dont try and hide it.

This is horrendous news. Not impressed.

Awful, awful, awful. I was planning to push for platinum this year, but will now reorient my business to more worthwhile outfits.

As is pointed out here (http://loyaltylobby.com/2013/02/17/e...a-new-zealand/), EK provides no explicit breakdown of the fuel surcharges. However, they appear to be quite significant - maybe of the order of a 25%+ tax on the cost of a economy reward ticket.

One of the benefits of flying EK was that Flex awards in J had reasonably good availability at a price not too much higher than Saver awards (which have miserable availability). This was incentive enough for me to continue to credit to EK, enough to make Silver (used to be Gold consistently back in the day). This changes the equation significantly for me.

Just to be clear, this applies to reward tickets only and not upgrades using miles, correct?

It appears to be that way. Though if there is a difference in surcharge between Y/J/F, they may charge the difference (as BA do). I have no idea.

With 250k+ miles in the Skywards bank, this gives me common cause with the plight of savers in Cyprus . . .

A 5 day notification of the introduction of a policy that will significantly devalue my miles counts as a commitment to "delivering excellent service and value for money to all our Skywards members." They must think we are crazy.

I thought EK gots it fuel free anyway . . . :)

Totally agree with all and am equally disgusted by Skywards. Its strange that they bothered to inform us , even though it was at the end of their newsletter. For quite some time they have been changing their rules subtly from bad to worse without even letting the customers know. Loyalty meant nothing to them anymore from a long time.

Skywards already has some of the worst earn/burn rates of any FFP, so this devaluation just reduces the competitiveness of the program even further. I think its time to burn those miles (very) quickly. Less than a week's notice for a change that will potentially increase the cost of award tickets by hundreds of dollars is ridiculous to say the least!

This is bad news. Rates were high enough before. This means miles are worth even less.

BA is clearly leading the way with this.

It is now patently foolish to fly EK for miles. Great product on the 380 and all that, but some of the most expensive miles per award KM in the business.

I guess some people will still fly them for the free taxi to and from the airport :p

Faced with a choice of increasing redemption rates or adding a fuel surcharge component (usually only about USD 200 on a revenue J Europe-Asia v.v. depending on market) I would choose to pay the extra USD 200.

This is probably an inevitable consequence of the QF tie-up... Sad, as I always appreciated the simplicity of EK revenue fares which had no surcharge component.

The 'volatility' reason for doing this is complete twaddle... If it was the true reason, we would see fuel surcharges fluctuating down as well as up in the markets where they already exist on EK.

You really don't like the taxi service do you? :D

Agreed, the miles are poor value. Fly EK if the price and product suit your needs, not much incentive to go out of the way.