Originally Posted by
NoStressHere
I would not call this a devaluation by WN. The federal gov't has removed the taxes from paid tickets.
The "free" tickets did not have those to remove - or at least I do not think they did.
And, those taxes is why is was always a challenge to assign an EXACT point value.
The ratio has changed, but not because WN did anything. The federal gov't did.
Basically correct. Award tickets are still subject to $5.60 each way TSA taxes, as are revenue fares. The waived taxes are the $4.30 US domestic segment tax and 7.5% US domestic excise tax on revenue tickets (these never applied to award tickets -- of course 7.5% of zero is still zero). Passenger Facility Charges (PFC's), which are $4.50 per departure airport for most airports, have not been waived on revenue fares. However, these also were never applied to award tickets.
The reason that segment taxes and PFC's are not collected on award tickets are due to historical rulings on so called "zero fare" tickets. The TSA tax was implemented in 2001 after these rulings were made and is not subject to them. This is the reason why it is collected on award tickets in addition to revenue fares.
International fares are not subject to $4.30 segment tax and 7.5% excise tax. They have flat departure and arrival taxes (currently $18.90) which have been waived. Customs, immigration, and APHIS surcharges on international fares have not been waived.