Originally Posted by
pbarnette
Feel free to kick and scream, but I have to say that anyone that expected the airlines to continue obviously one-sided (in favor of the consumer) FF programs is more than a bit naive.
I disagree.
Fuel Surcharges are pure bottom line revenue to the airline. Hiding them in "taxes and fees" is disingenuous, why not build in a "labour surcharge" in advance of those next round of contract negotiations, or maybe an "aircraft seating upgrade surcharge" to compensate for the fleet modifications while we're at it?
Specific to FF tickets, I expect the number of points to "pay" for my flight. I do expect to pay bona fide taxes. I don't expect to pay $712 - some $480 of which is revenue to the airline, while redeeming 100,000 miles for a transatlantic economy class reward ticket.
FF point redemption should "pay" for the ticket, minus bona fide taxes. If the number of miles needs to go up, then put them up. DL is notoriously stingy on low level awards anyway, so you're invariably redeeming at mid or a combination of mid and high levels and at 100,000 miles transatlantic, no - I don't think it's one-sided in favour of the consumer to have to pay another $712 on top of that.