Originally Posted by
dvs7310
Sounds like they're doing exactly the same as BA then for just JL and CX, just in a different format. Instead of increasing the Avios, they're charging it as a disguised YQ instead. It's interesting though, because they say 'booked on the phone'. I always book via Chat. But I wonder if you just submitted a request online and waited for the reply if the fees will still be that or would be normal?
It's really surprising that you got someone to admit the real YQ should be what was expected and the rest was a hidden fee, good job.
She was as surprised as I was at the beginning, saying "let me check with ticketing to see why they charged you 1100..."
It looks like they add this arbitrary fee whenever ticketing has to manually price the fare, i.e. applicable to both chat or telephone. I didn't catch on until now, but my JL HKGNRT flight in January (booked through chat) was charged 1100HKD YQ as well. JL's YQ back in Jan was higher than it is today, proving the point further.
In my specific case it's still a better deal than thru BA but very misleading, just call it what it is and I wouldn't care. Charging 12k JPY for a domestic redemption is straight criminal though
