TrojanHorse

From DL: International Surcharges
Carrier-imposed surcharges pursuant to applicable international tariff filings International YQ/YR up to
$260*
each way

I'm having a hard time digesting Randy's comment about "As for the 50,000 miles and $600 in taxes? Well, imagine the other person who is paying $500 for the ticket and then $600 in taxes. Let's remember, the award redeemer is not being singled out"

If I'm paying for an int'l flight I'm going to do a search; iad>lhr RT, using DL and 7/15>7/22 and up will pop a list of possible Itins and lets say I search by price for simplicity. I realize going the other way will result in more taxes but for simplicity and just adding a fuel charge in below, I'm trying to make my point.

I'm going to get the following:

lowest fare with 1 stop in large numbers $839 and in small numbers + taxes and fees $156.98 and a total of $996.78 so with one click of the submit button, I know what I'm going to PAY in cash for this trip.. $996.78 and I will decide based on that amount if I want to pay that much for this trip. I do not know how much of this is fuel surcharge, nor do I care nor do I suspect most pax care, all I know is that my OOP is $997 bucks. DL can allocate any way they want in their books but in the end the $839 is all booked to SALES or REVENUE and whether they use some sort of subsidiary account for fuel surcharges or not does not matter, its a total sales of $839 with the passthru costs as $156 in taxes.

for reward travel using the same dates:

I get 100K miles and $143.38 in taxes which to me is close enough

however if you all of a sudden put $300 in fuel surcharges into that $839 base fare then the purchased flight is the same to me as i stated above I don't care how DL allocates my money but if you make it 100K plus 443.38 in taxes and fees then its a different ball game.

why is DL giving away all these miles? I'm sure there are a few reason but they know if they can get awards redeemed, they will also collect not only the money from 3rd parties for selling the miles but also the fuel surcharges.

As some one stated above, surcharges are a temporary fix. Remember the energy surcharges at the start of the decade in hotels, I don't see them any more, probably b/c they are buried in the rates; cabs used to have a $X surcharge too; they disappeared although they are starting to return; the point is, that you add these on until you can adjust your billing system to accomodate the additional costs or you think it will be something temporary where you can rescind the surcharge in the future. Airlines are doing neither. They are not building into their fare basis and this is where they rightfully belong; Fuel Surcharges are indeed part of the FARE; you don't see depreciation surcharges, labor surcharges, maint. surcharges, procurement surcharges, subcontract surcharges, just fuel. Fuel is part of the Cost of Goods Sold and this is what the price should cover.

Regarding the fed ex example; I'd be curious to know if they had a frequent shipping program if they would add these on; Ive never seen a program like that (that doesn't mean it doesn't exist) so thats not really a fare (punn intended) example. Ditto for the plumber. If you buy 100 pipes does he give you the 101st free? if so, would that have a surcharge? thats the only way to compare this stuff.

for those who say its a gimmick to get around corp agreements I agree but I also put the blame on corporations who do not negotiate against the surcharges. Business travelers fares are what they live for and if enough major companies start pushing back then you might get somewhere. I participate on one of the travel councils for a $32B in sales (and we don't bill surcharges) company and one of my recommendations was to start pushing back on the fuel surcharges (regarding discounts applying to them)

to summarize, I do feel that this (surcharge) is nothing but a gimmick to squeeze more revenue out of the so called award pax and corporations who don't get a discount off surcharges.

finally one question; the 7.5% fed exc tax is on the fare basis right? do they pay the excise tax on fuel charges? if yes, then its part of the fare? if no, maybe uncle sam should be auditing this system of fuel charges and stopping this accounting gimmick.