Hi all. I could use your help.I just priced out a pair of tickets YHZ-CDG for next spring, using my companion voucher. It declined my voucher because "the base fare is less" even though the total price pp is over $800. It looks like the ATC is nearly as much as the base fare? When did that become a thing?

Here's the math.

For one person,YHZ-CDG return May 21-Jun 4

Adult base fare $387
Other ATC $320
Taxes & fees $136
Total $843

I did a quick FB chat with Westjet. "ATC" she said is not included in the voucher. Only the base fare. (So I could pay $399 for the voucher or $387 for the base fare, and the other add ons are the same. Not using the voucher is $12 cheaper!)

What's ATC, I asked. Well, fuel and things like that. So...when you buy the seat you're not paying for gas.

I know airlines messed around to add fuel surcharges and such to hide costs when they were able to advertise base price differently, but I thought that was mostly obsolete now. At this point there's very little difference between the base fare and the ATC.

Is this WS's way of devaluing the companion vouchers? We flew YHZ-LGW two summers ago and the companion cost was total of about $550 ($399 for the voucher, and about $90 in taxes), which was a significant saving over the regular fare. ETA, found my old ticket from 2017--the ATC on the trip to LGW was $15 with a base fare of $794. Now a trip to LGW has an ATC of $320, same as to CDG. The companion fare saved me $400 over the regular fare.

Am I reading it right? Basically my voucher won't get me any discount because of the way they've monkeyed with the fare breakdown.Is there a way around this? Maybe I need to look for different dates/airports or something? (Don't really want to fly to LGW this time, and it's not like there's a ton of choice.) Or maybe if I upgrade to a flex fare or something that squeezes a bit more out of me I'll balance with a reduced ATC?

Is there any legislation around ATC/how fares are broken out? I.e., can I file a complaint with anyone?

Ideas please! Help!