Originally Posted by
Seat64A
My view is that if airlines reduced these charges for redemptions, they'd simply increase the number of miles required.
There is currently no justification for fuel surcharges. High fuel prices look like they are here to stay. What would the price of fuel have to drop to for fuel surcharges to disappear? Exactly! We may as well have other surcharges e.g., a "Food and Drink Surcharge", a "Salary Bill Surcharge" or a "New Plane Purchase Cost Surcharge" as airlines' bills for these rise with inflation. Fuel surcharges show the airlines' contempt for their customers.
The planes we now fly on, such as the 777-300ER, have impressive litres/100km/passenger figures, yet this seems not to be reflected in the fuel surcharges airlines levy.
I remember when my first redemption tickets (on KLM) were absolutely free and when that airline, at least, did not see its loyal customers as just another source from which revenue can be squeezed. We (some of us, anyway) pay for our tickets and then pay (often a lot) to redeem the so-called benefits of the airline loyalty schemes to which we belong.
Loyalty programs were there to reward loyal travellers.People would pay to fly and after a few flights they may have had enough points to book a free ticket.Airlines then started to get greedy in selling points to anyone with a pulse(Credit cards,hotels,cars etc.) but in return have created a monster.There are way too many points out there and there have been studies that some airlines would need to fly only mileage tickets for 1-2 years without selling a single revenue(cash) ticket in order to eliminate the points from their own FF programs let alone their partners(Alliances,Credit cards,hotels etc.).Also fuel way back was $20-$25 a barrel so there has been an increase of 400%.