Originally Posted by
Mofomat
However, KLM also charge you the extortionate fuel surcharges which are NOT a tax. A tax is something which is collected on behalf of another party, such as airport passenger duty, or government taxes.
U.S. airlines for example are not allowed to class fuel surcharges as a tax, and they have to be part of the airfare.
Fully agreed with you that airlines should not charge fuel (and whatever else) surcharges for award ticket. What also makes me mad is the fact that when you cancel a non-flexible flight, those fuel surcharges suddenly seem to become part of the fare and are not refunded (don't know if this is KLM policy however). But just for a point of balance, all airlines that have fuel surcharges for revenue tickets, also do this for award tickets (unless someone knows an exception?). Unfortunately KLM is by no means alone in this.
Still, it is an erosion as such, compared to either the completely free award tickets (think I had one of those, which defines my age just a bit more...) or to just charging the airport and government taxes & fees.