shanghaiflyer

I used four frequent flyer tickets earned through Northwest's program on Malaysia Airlines. The confirmation I received from Northwest stated that all fuel surcharges were included. I flew from Shanghai to KL to Singapore without a problem. On the way back, I was forced to pay US $227 per ticket.

This seems unfair for two reasons:
1) Northwest indicated that the surchage was included
2) I wasn't told about it until half-way through the flight.

Bad going on the parts of Northwest and Malaysia Airlines.

Anyone else have this problem and any solution?

dvs7310

It says right on the worldperks site that fuel surcharge isn't included for MH award tickets. This has always been collected at the MH counter.

Why you didn't have to pay it on the first half of your ticket is a mystery.

spunk_tokyo

It is explicitly written in NW homepage that: ***WorldPerks members traveling on award tickets on Malaysia Airlines are subject to additional fees that include administrative fees, insurance and fuel surcharges. These fees will be collected by Malaysia Airlines upon check-in.

For details, please see: http://www.nwa.com/asia/en/worldperk....html#malaysia

Nevertheless, it is NW's fault that they included the "Fare includes fuel surcharge if applicable. " clause in every e-ticket that is issued on 012 stock, even for award ticket on MH. NW should have instructed the programmer the right rule so it would not contradict the abovementioned clause.

If NW gives me 5,000 miles everytime I got charged the fuel surcharge om MH, I would get hundred thousand s of miles added to my account by now.

thezipper

Yes, other have... a search on "malaysia fuel" resulted in this thread started over 2 years ago...

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/north...d-tickets.html

MikeMpls

The real problem is that NW would bother with a partner whose fees can't be dealt with up front at booking time. Malaysia should be given the boot.

Manoa Chris

The surcharges suck. Fortunately, some outstations do not impose them very often. I've avoided it three times in four.

And hey, MH isn't half as devious as our new Delta overlords. Plus it's a pretty amazing airline -- some of the best service available for WP redemption, if not the best.

orsum

I'd be about 60,000 WP miles better off if I'd got the 5000 miles "we're sorry" back each time . Thanks for that OP I'll be all over it for future flights with MH.

ControlTower

Sometimes you pay, sometimes you don't.
I don't know what are the rules are.........

I tried to challenge couple times, but they refuse to give out Boarding Passes without paying.

GrizShel

Is this information displayed (prominently I would hope) when you go to purchase a ticket with a Malaysian air flight - and does it tell you exactly how much you are going to have to pay at the counter?

I wouldn't ever purchase a ticket giving the airline the right to charge me additional fees of unspecified amount at the airport.

RobertH

Nope - not displayed when "purchasing" since as far as I know you can't book MH frequent flyer seats on nwa.com. You need to do this via a real live agent. Of course that means you will also have to pay a fee for using an agent. When you do get a frquent flyer seat using MH it would be nice if the agent were to tell you about the fee, in my experience they don't. If they do tell you they won't know the amount! Quite a system.

However, that said, C class on MH is really nice. You used to be able to get F class using miles (where the service is as good as any I have seen - including Singapore Air) but no longer.

inagaddadavida

I've been thinking of trying to grab an MH award in C while I can transfer miles freely between DL and NW. I had seen the disclaimer on nwa.com about the MH awards, but am quite surprised to hear that the agents don't have any idea what the charges will be.

Poking through the thread referenced near the top of the page and with a little more work I found this link. That page seems to give an idea of what the fees may amount to. I assume the fees are one way, but as many have mentioned, they are not always enforced.

airflyer

Due to flyertalk I stumbled across this fee as I had planned LAX-TPE-KUL-BKK then HKT-KUL on MH. Called PE line and was told yes there was a fee and she said it could be up to $500 per pax. Gave me the MH line to get the exact amount. Asked MH agent about surcharge and without hesitation said yes they do collect this. She looked at the routing I gave her and gave me the price of $261 per person, or $1041 for my family. I don't think so, even though I love MH. Asked for quote for only TPE-KUL-BKK and HKT-KUL so I might try CI to TPE and price went down $500, still too much.
Anyway, I found that if you go to the MH website, start a new booking for the flight you want, select the full flex fare then hit next. Then select the details link under "TAX", and look at the YQ coded tax "Admin fee, Fuel (where applicable) and other surcharges" and this is the price I was quoted exactly. Tried the three different combos of flights I had asked about and the price was always exactly as quoted.

RobertH

Airflyer - yup the MH website does show those fees. VERY handy. Interestingly it shows about $108 USD each way for the fee from Singapore to Shanghai via KL. I wonder if the original poster was charged the round-trip fees even though he had already flown half the itinerary?

Anyone else have recent experience with the actual fee charged by MH upon checkin? The fees that the original poster mentioned (if they are one way) seem much closer to the information inagaddadavia found (if you add the fuel surcharge and tax for KL to SIN and KL to Shanghai.)

Klm is Dead - Long Live KLM

The really amazing thing is that a high-class and quality outfit with a real premium cabin and world-class service like Malaysian would even allow the unwashed riffraff of some rinky-dink, from bankrupt to absorbed, soon-to-be-extinct, failed airline that thinks that " First " Class means that they don't charge you for the nuts (or the use of the frayed, sticky, stained seat) would even allow premium awards to be even partially redeemed using the worthless, easy to "earn" points from WP, RIP.

LucWise

Are these ridiculous fuel surcharges limited to just MH? I sure hope so. I'm flying on KE soon and I hope that I will not be hit with similar surcharges.