<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Madgalena:
I recently signed up for a mileage deal from Sprint and see on my bill an item for almost 4 dollars labelled "frequent flyer excise charge." I'm sure it's included in the fine print somewhere; could someone tell me in plain language, though, what they know about this extra fee. </font>
It's an extra fee Sprint now charges on airline partnership programs:
Frequent Flyer Excise Charge: If you participate in an Airlines/Sprint Partnership Program, you will incur a monthly Frequent Flyer Excise Charge calculated as follows:
Total Frequent Flyer Miles Earned X $0.0010
Example: 270 frequent flyer miles earned from Sprint X $0.0010 = $0.27
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Is it going to be a steady monthly amount? </font>
See above description.
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Do other phone companies charge an equivalent?</font>
Some do, some don't. Sprint charges such things as "FF excise charges" and "number portability fees" because consumers let them get away with it. If people would object and switch to the competitors that don't charge such fees, then perhaps Sprint would get the message.
The phone/FF excise charges are similar to those charged by many car rental companies on FF miles. If credit card companies thought they could get away with it, they'd charge such a fee as well. However the CC market is much more competitive.