CloudsBelow

Looking to get get ride of my remaining AP points and get out of this game. Looked at YOW-FRA-PRG (AC/LH).

Let's review the customer experience :

I ask for Business / First. Of course AP returns YOW-FRA-PRG as an option ....... With the 8 hour flihgt in Y and a quick connector in J on LH

So I check Y ..... Available. with $600 / ticket in fees. No longer a fuel surcharge. However, there is a tiny $436 for Carrier Administration Service Charge.
Is that pre-emptive of AC/AP ahead of a pending investigation into fraudulent labelling of Fuel surcharge?

Of course, I could just buy the ticket for $1,200 rendering 75,000 AP points netting me $600.

CANNOT wait to get out of this game.

ChrisA330

YQ has always been Carrier Administration Service Charge. You just normally see YQ instead of the full description.

CloudsBelow

Ahh, Ok,
Thanks.
In previous redemptions, I (thought) there was always a "Fuel Surcharge" label. Hadn't seen "Carrier Administration" label before ........

WhiteYUL

I seem to recall past reward travel bookings showing Carrier Administration Charge. Call it YQ, Carrier Admin., co-pay, scamcharges, or whatever, it all comes to the same thing: more money out of your pocket...

tcook052

Yes:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-c...ce-charge.html

See also:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-c...Service+Charge

CloudsBelow

I guess I'm mixed up ....... Rememebr reading threads wondering when AC would roll back fuel surcharges when oil$ started coming down again. I guess that was on AC bookings only.

This admin charge is on AP bookings.

I'm all for AC/AP to return profit, just be nice if they were a little more explicit with what these charges are for instead of their shady approach to deceive those who don't know better and are just happy getting a "free ticket".

arcticbull

Hahaha, the fraudulent labeling was when they called it Fuel Surcharge Since of course it wasn't used to pay for fuel at all, but went directly into Air Canada's pocket no matter which airline you are flying per their announcement when they started collecting it. Now they're being honest and calling it what it is, a Carrier Administration Service Charge A charge of $LOTS for administering and providing their frequent flier program with award tickets.

Stranger

At least, more obscure.

As to the charge going diectly to AC on Aeroplan tickets, arguably this is none of my business, blame should stick to Aeroplan. Surely if Aeroplan would pay enough to AC to cover the cost, they would not need to resort to adding an additional co-pay that goes to AC.

Anyway, internal cooking between the two clowns should be immaterial to customers.

arcticbull

That's a very good point

Redy2Rumble

I've pretty much switched most of my travel to other carriers and use Air Canada only when I absolutely have to (so I don't get to b*tch about them as often as I used to) but I just did a reward travel from YYZ to CDG and for my 90,000 points, I received a tax bill for over $900

Carrier Administration Service Charge

$776.00

Canada Domestic/International Airport Improvement Fee

$25.00

Canada Harmonized Sales Tax

$3.25

Canada Domestic/International Air Travel Security Charge

$25.91

Germany International Passenger Service Charge

$21.00

France Domestic & International Airport Tax

$21.70

France International Passenger Service Charge

$14.50

France Air Passenger Solidarity Tax

$51.20

Total per passenger

$938.56

Total passengers

1

$938.56

Total airport taxes, fees and surcharges (CAD)
$938.56

I guess I'll sit in economy for $100 more, and save my 90K points for gift cards.

Piratos

What a joke. When I first saw it my initial impression was that it sounded more reasonable than a "fuel surcharge" however on closer inspection it is more ridiculous. I can at least understand that a flight from YYZ to LIM burns more fuel than one from YYZ to LGA but it defies belief that it costs a multiple more to "administer" it.
I understand that Air Canada and Aeroplan are somewhat independant enterprises but isn't plan administration something that should be worked out between them leaving me out of it?

Stranger

So you expect them to be candid and call the co-pay a co-pay?

Or you would prefer that they simply raise the miles level, doubling it or something like that? At least for now we occasionally find a way around the co-pay.

Spin doctors shall be spin doctors.

rankourabu

naaaaah... just call it a scamcharge, like it really is.

Its been 10 months since they stealthly overnight started collecting it on behalf of Air Canada. Air Canada's lame explanation was that the other carriers asked them to collect the scamcharge. We all know that its not true, because UA and US still manage to issue tickets without said scamcharge on airlines such as LH or TG. And we all know there is no way in hell that if truly asked by those airlines to collect it, they would keep eating hundreds of dollars of YQ on every ticket.

Air Canada has probably made millions off of this scamcharge in the last 10 months.

GJS - yow

+1

Shareholder

The only Tax Bill you received was for $3.25 to Ottawa for HST, and $72.90 to the French government ($51.20 of which was for this Air Passenger Solidarity Tax!) for various scam charges.