Originally Posted by
Killdore
Something that I heard, pardon my ignorance:
"Air India levies huge taxes on its international flights"
So one of my friends who introduced me to this concept of air miles, told me that AI FR program is good for domestic flights as the taxes levied by AI are similar to Jet Airways etc, so when you redeem miles you get pretty much the same value.
However, on international flights, it is believed that AI levies huge taxes and the whole deal of "Mile Redemption + Cash Taxes" makes it a high cost flight. He believes that Jet and other airline taxes are much more rationalized and hence their miles actually give you much more value than AI.
He gave me an example: He booked a return flight to Dubai and had to pay somewhere around INR 10,000 + Miles.
According to him buying a ticket would have been cheaper.
Is there any merit to this theory?
Also, I read somewhere on FT about AI levying Fuel Surcharge which other airlines don't. Is the theory related to fuel surcharge?
BA is notorious about exorbitant " Fuel Surcharges" on award tickets. They now call it Carrier Imposed Charges because there is now a lawsuit pending in US courts that says BA was not truthful in applying FS as the very name applies that this should fluctuate with the price of fuel. Instaed it was going up while oil prices were going down ! I have paid 1200 USD for ORD BOM ORD award in businesses class on BA. NEVER AGAIN !
They do it even when you fly other alliance members while using their avios
