closetasfan

Is there a simple way to figure out who charges fuel surcharges on Award travel between US - Japan? Can I say that US carriers do NOT charge and Asian carriers all do? Do the surcharges vary by carrier?

What happens if, say, I have ANA miles and use it to redeem UA or CO, do I have to pay fuel surcharges? How about the reverse?

TIA

LizzyDragon84

The surcharges vary based on the rules of the airline that the miles are coming from. There are no blanket rules- carriers which do charge surcharges might not apply them to their own metal or partner airlines.

I'm not familiar with ANA's rules, but UA and CO do not have fuel surcharges.

slawecki

ua and co have some kind of a "fee" that walks like that duck. test book, and see what you get. you can see fees if you test book on orbitz.

Palal

Again to reiterate what was said above, UA does NOT have fuel surcharges on award tickets. They DO have fuel surcharges on revenue tix.

LizzyDragon84

As Palal said, those are for revenue and not award bookings. Award bookings will still cost some money when booked using UA/CO miles as they still pass on airport fees/taxes (which are different from fuel surcharges). The amount of fees/taxes will vary by routing.

EqualOpp

http://www.onlinetravelreview.com/20...award-tickets/

check a recent thread in this forum too for more links...

slawecki

my 2 biz class tikts iad-vce get on austrian get an $1100 kiss total, could show you the mastercard charge.

Palal

Using UA miles? That doesn't sound right. My biz class SFO-ZRH-LIS has about $30 in taxes/fees.

Steve M

"Pass on" is not quite the right term. The fees that UA/CO charges for award bookings are all fees that are assessed directly to the passenger by the taxing authority, and which the airline is required to collect and remit on their behalf. There are many other taxes and fees that are assessed to the airline directly (such as landing fees), but none of those are passed on and are absorbed as a cost of doing business.

This is very different than various "regulatory cost recovery fee" schemes that for example car rental companies charge, where the tax or fee is assessed on and payable by the car rental company, and where the agency chooses to "recover" these from the customer.

slawecki

i used LH miles. UA stated they could not book iad-vce on award travel. said they and none of their alliance members did that route. so i booked on austria(a star alliance member) and used lh miles.

pinniped

Smells like Starnet blocking to me... I recall a case where I had an OS segment that the ANA tool was showing available for awards but the UA agent would not acknowledge even existed in the system. (At least, I *think* that's Starnet blocking. If there's another explanation, I'd be interested to hear it.)

I've redeemed int'l to Europe and Asia using UA, AA, and US (including for alliance awards) and never felt like the fees went beyond what the government collected. Usually in the $50-100 range, a smidge higher for select European airports.

So, to the OP, as far as I know you could redeem UA miles on ANA metal and not get hit with a major cash cost. I can't speak at all to the reverse - for that, I'd check the ANA forum or perhaps the generic Star Alliance forum if you're in the process of selecting a carrier and want more opinions beyond just ANA.

Palal

Sounds like you tried using .bomb. You can't book non-UACO flights (with a few exceptions) on .bomb. You should have transferred your miles over to CO and booked it on CO.com or called UA to book it over the phone. Those are the only two ways to do it.