Originally Posted by
yamanote8
Hi all, made a booking on HKG-HND on JL J using QR Avios. I was charged 1100HKD (=141USD) coded as YQAC Carrier Imposed International Surcharge.
My understanding is that YQ is collected on behalf of (and remitted to) the operating carrier. In this case, JL's YQ for Japan~East Asia for the current quarter is 55USD (=431HKD). ITA Matrix on a cash booking for the same flight shows YQ of 431HKD exactly. British Airways and Cathay both show redemption availability for the same flight, both breaking down YQ to 431HKD.
I called QR to ask and after being put on hold for half an hour I was told that they add their own 'award service fee' to the YQ line item. Incidentally, there is a service fee line in my receipt, showing zero. It doesn't make any sense to me, but am I wasting my time pursuing this?
Yeah, it's a known problem. They charged me something ridiculous like $150 for PVG-HND on JL as well. BA would have been less than $50 for the same but more Avios. I didn't even think to check if BA would have offered me a Avios + Cash option since that would have likely been less, I know they used to at one point in time on JL awards.
QR also quoted me an absurd 12,000 JPY (about $80) for YQ on a domestic JL flight, those don't have any notable tax on them, AA or BA ticket then for about $5 in fees, but again BA is charging more Avios for it now. So it's an issue with QR at least with JL and CX tickets. But I redeemed a WB (Rwandair) ticket from QR Avios and they only charged me a tiny YQ (maybe $5-10) plus Kenya's fairly high airport taxes. So it's definitely not all partners that get tagged with this ridiculous fee.
Edit: Just found the actual charges:
QR 16,500 Avios JL business class + 23,000JPY (~$150)
BA would be 26,400 Avios + 10,850JPY (~$72), so roughly half in YQ but 10,000 more Avios. They do offer Avios + Cash but to get it down to nearly the same level, it's 17,600 Avios + 27,.650JPY (~$184), so QR is still a better deal for the most part considering the cost of Avios in a subscription is about $150 for 10,000 (subscription is one of the cheapest ways to get them in US$, since the US$ price isn't as good as the GBP or EUR price in sales).
Oddly I just noticed on our tickets, they charged me in JPY for my fees and my partner in CNY, doesn't make a huge difference but she paid on a JPY based card so would have been nice if charged in JPY too.
Originally Posted by
brunos
Number of Avios/miles and surcharge often depends on the FFP used to book that flight.
The surcharge for award bookings often differs from that of cash bookings.
If your flight is cheaper on BAEC, why don't you transfer avios from QR to BA and book on BAEC?
Because BA charges more Avios for JL and CX now, it was hiked late last year. QR didn't follow the increase so the idea was people would just transfer their Avios to QR for those flights, but the fees are more than double, it's a tradeoff, but QR is definitely charging excessive fees on those 2 airlines that they aren't on other partners. (and with BA, it's for those 2 partners alone, no others)