:D so I guess, the surcharges will go away now?

but I agree with you, this is why low-value rewards did not increase, such as domestic 25k, or coach rewards.
Its the FT-type moochers that used 120k points to fly around the world in first that are to blame :D

Air Canada & Aeroplan's silence on this is appalling, they must think we are complete idiots

Routing:3 tickets in Y, purchased 21 Jan 2011 - fees per person:1 ticket in J, purchased 21 Feb 2011 - fees:When I purchased these tickets, there was no "Carrier Administration Service Charge" - the Fuel Surcharge notation was changed retroactively on my Aeroplan account. Note that if I was to purchase today, the CASC would be $340(Y)/$480(J).

YLW-YVR vv $129.xx (Y)

YLW-LAS vv $151.xx (3 J segments, 2 Y)

More flying and J cabins with the second itin, but the big difference is no "carrier administration service charge" because there's one UA segment involved (I guess). That was about $55 for the 1st itin.

YYZ-MIA (AC J)
MIA-FRA (LH F - on the A380!)
FRA-MUC (LH J)
MUC-VCE (LH J)
VCE-ZRH (LX J)
ZRH-YUL (LX F)
YUL-YYZ (AC J)

Total taxes/surcharges per person: $285 (lot of Germany surcharges since we've got a stopover in MUC)

Tried to get a connecting YYZ-MIA flight to avoid AC, but could not find one without having to overnight in MIA or start on a 6am flight to make the MIA-FRA flight on time.

YTZ-YUL-ZRH-BOM-BKK (ZX Y/ LX F/LX F/TG C)
BKK-HKG-MUC-KRK (TG F/LH F/LH C)
KRK-FRA-IAD-YYZ (LH Y/UA F/UA F)

U.S. Passenger Safety Fee $2.48
Canada Domestic/International Air Travel Security Charge $25.91
Germany International Passenger Service Charge $42.38
Canada Domestic/International Airport Improvement Fee $20.00
Thailand Domestic Passenger Service $21.00
U.S Agriculture Fee $5.45
U.S Passenger Facility Charge $4.46
Canada Goods And Service Tax $2.60
U.S.A Immigration User Fee $6.93
U.S. Customs User Fee $5.45
Nav Canada - Air Navigation Services $30.00

Total airport taxes, fees and surcharges per passenger
$166.66

Three things:
The flight from the island airport did not attract the $54 fuel surcharge, along with saving $5 on AIP compared to YYZ :D
I was not charged any Poland taxes - which is weird, since its a stopover.
The German tax also looks small considering two Germany connections..

I'm willing to bet your itinerary was 'auto quoted' by the booking system and not the agent. The 'auto quote' system makes mistakes like forgetting the YQ (fuel surcharge). IME the auto quoting system is currently no more accurate than letting the agent do it manually,

YYZ>GRU AC J
GRU>CPT SA J
CPT>FRA SA J
FRA>YYZ LH J

The following airport taxes, fees & surcharges were applicable to your reward booking:

Brazil Embarkation Tax $35.60

Canada Domestic/International Air Travel Security Charge $25.91

Germany Airport Security Charge $9.40

South Africa Passenger Safety Charge $5.40

Germany International Passenger Service Charge $26.40

Canada Harmonized Sales Tax $3.25

Canada Domestic/International Airport Improvement Fee $25.00

South Africa International Passenger Tax $22.40

Nav Canada - Air Navigation Services $15.00

South Africa Domestic/International Passenger Service Charge $55.20

Total airport taxes, fees and surcharges (CAD)
$223.56

EWR > FRA LH F
FRA > BKK TG F
BKK > CNX TG J
CNX > HKT TG J
HKT > BKK TG J
BKK > MUC TG F
MUC > EWR LH F

U.S. Passenger Safety Fee $2.50
Germany Airport Security Charge $16.70
Germany International Passenger Service Charge $49.30
Thailand Domestic Passenger Service $29.80
U.S. International Transportation Tax$32.60
U.S Agriculture Fee $5.00
U.S Passenger Facility Charge $4.50
U.S.A Immigration User Fee $7.00
U.S. Customs User Fee$5.50
Total airport taxes, fees and surcharges per passenger $152.90
Total passengers 2
Total airport taxes, fees and surcharges per passenger type$305.80

Looks like they didnt charge you a fuel surcharge for this segment ;)

YVR-ICN ACJ
ICN-SIN SQ J
SIN-MEL SQ J
MEL-AKL NZ J
AKL LAX NZ J
LAX-YVR AC J

100K points; $403.07, mostly from the ICN run "carrier administrative service charge".

Good luck! This is supposed to be one of the first routes to get TG's new A380.

Thanks! But I doubt it will be in place by next Feb :( Also I would assume the evening flights (which appear to be a bit more in demand mist get them first.

But you never know!

YYT-YQX AC Y (operated by ZX)
YQX-YHZ AC Y (operated by QK)
YHZ-BOS AC Y (operated by QK)

The following airport taxes, fees & surcharges were applicable to your reward booking:

Canada Domestic/International Air Travel Security Charge $12.10
Canada Harmonized Sales Tax $2.60
Canada Domestic/International Airport Improvement Fee $20.00
U.S. International Transportation Tax $16.00
U.S Agriculture Fee $4.90
Canada Goods And Service Tax $2.34
U.S.A Immigration User Fee $6.90
Carrier Administration Service Charge $27.00
Nav Canada - Air Navigation Services $7.50
Total airport taxes, fees and surcharges per passenger $99.34

17,000 points

I consider this a steal as AC currently wants $1225+tax for a one-way YYT-BOS ticket for this coming Friday.

NRT→SIN　SQ11 C 388
SIN→TPE SQ880 C 333
TPE→NRT NH1084 C 763

30K award.
Oil surcharge: none
TAX
NRT:2540 Yen, SIN:1850 Yen
Total:4390 Yen

YYZ-BDL-YYZ

15,000 miles + $164 (taxes & payolas) x 2

Much better than the $1,000 per ticket for a revenue.

Booked on April 30th 2011:

YUL-ZRH LX F

ZRH-MUC LH J

MUC-BKK TG F

BKK-SGN LH F

SGN-BKK TG J

BKK-HKG TG F

HKG-ICN OZ J

ICN-LAX OZ F

LAX-ORD UA F

ORD-YUL AC J

Total taxes and charges and surcharges 208.59$

Nicely done! How's the timing getting home from LAX? I was going to do a similar return but the LAX arrival time made for crappy connections from there to YYC.

YYZ-YUL AC J
YUL-ZRH LX F
ZRH-FCO LX J
FCO-BKK TG F
BKK-HKG TG F-
HKX-HND NH J
NRT-ORD NH F
ORD-YYZ UA F

120,000 points and taxes of $174.36 plus $30 booking fee. Figured I would use the points before the points jump in July

Update: Paid fee for ticket change and changes routing/stops to the following:
YYZ-DUS LH F
DUS-LIS LF J STOP
LIS-ZRH-TP J
ZRH-HKG-LX F TURNAROUND
HGK-HND NH J STOP
NRT-ORD NH F
ORD-YYZ UA F

This changed the taxes by only $11.00 so taxes still work out to under $190.00 (plus change fee, of course)

My connection in ORD is too tight, I'm afraid I'll have to change this:
(HKG) Seoul Inchon (ICN) Affaires
mar 15-Novembre 2011 mar 15-Novembre 2011
00:30 05:05
OZ202 Seoul Inchon (ICN) Los Angeles (LAX) Première
mar 15-Novembre 2011 mar 15-Novembre 2011
16:30 10:10
UA385 Los Angeles (LAX) Chicago O Hare (ORD) 752 Première
mar 15-Novembre 2011 mar 15-Novembre 2011
13:00 18:59 - TERMINAL 1
Place(s) sélectionnée(s): 03B
AC8658 Chicago O Hare (ORD) Montréal Trudeau (YUL) CRA Affaires
mar 15-Novembre 2011 mar 15-Novembre 2011
19:40 - TERMINAL 2 22:35

NGO-BKK TG Y
BKK-NRT NH Y
NRT-NGO NH Y

20k points
taxes, fees, and surcharges = $52.2

Is there any way to calc the fees and taxes independently?
 

I booked this round-trip yesterday, all in business class on Lufthansa:

MCO-FRA stopover
FRA-OSL turnaround
OSL-FRA (overnight connection)
FRA-ATL departure open jaw

80k miles
$226.20 tax

Is there any way to calculate the tax on these award fares independently? When the agent said he to wait for him to calculate the taxes, I could sense he was doing it manually and it did not inspire a lot of confidence it was accurate. For all I know, he added it up incorrectly and I said "Uhh . . . ok" anyway. I'd love to have a way to make sure the figures are basically right so next time I can respond more intelligently.

I searched for my itinerary in this thread but didn't see anything similar so I can't compare that way. I'm looking for a more general method in any case. Thanks.

Looks reasonable. Between US and German airport and environment taxes it's in the right ballpark.

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/
Use multicity if necessary to force your exact flights

At the end click on View itinerary and fare details

Subtract any YQ/YR components for pure taxes.

Per ITA, for your itinerary:

US International Departure Tax (US) $16.30
US September 11th Security Fee (AY) $2.50
US Passenger Facility Charge (XF) $4.50
German Airport Security Tax (DE) $19.40
German Passenger Service Charge (RA) $60.70
German Air Transport Tax (OY) $66.70
USDA APHIS Fee (XA) $5.00
US Immigration Fee (XY) $7.00
US Customs Fee (YC) $5.50
US International Arrival Tax (US) $16.30
Norway Passenger Charge (ZN) $22.30

Pretty horrifying
 

I'm seeing a lot of itineraries, that look longer than mine, and in the same direction. I booked from

YVR-YYV-FRA-TRN

Then,

TRN-FRA-YUL-YVR

And the taxes, security charges etc. all in were 445.70 each!

The itinerary is choppy as I have no status anymore and booked "late" in February.

Ouch! Who are your flight's with? I suspect you went with Air Canada?

Yes, what a racket.

Check your tax breakdown carefully.

Yes there are taxes and security charges - probably between $150 and $200 - you can t get away from those.
The rest is a carrier administration charge - money that does not go to any government agency - it stays with Air Canada/Aeroplan.

It is lumped with taxes to trick people into believe that AC/AE do not keep the money. It is only payable when one flies Air Canada on an Aeroplan ticket. If you fly a partner, those charges are not charged.

Eek--it would have been cheaper to avoid AC, eg
YVR-FRA-TRN all on Lufthansa

(not sure what cabin you are in) Might even be worth to pay the change fee to avoid most of those fuel surcharges.

My trip YYZ-Europe-Asia-Toronto came in at about $175 plus $30 fee

Just booked the following trip for 2 Adults + 1 Child in Economy Class:

YYZ -> FRA -> CDG (Stop)
CDG -> MUC -> FLR (Turnaround)
FLR -> MUC -> LHR (Stop)
LHR -> FRA (Connection / Overnight at FRA)
FRA -> YYZ

- all Lufthansa flights

Total $394.76 per person -- $360.86 Tax + $33.90 Booking Fee.

I price the exact same route on Lufthansa web site and it show a total of $10863.07 for all 3 of us. That translate to $0.5377 per AEROPLAN miles, so I am happy :D

BTW, in case someone is looking for the following info:

*Fare calculation:
xxxxxxYTO LH X/FRA LH PAR LH X/MUC LH FLR M0.00LH X/MUC LH
LON LH X/FRA LH YTO M0.00CAD0.00 END ROE1.00 XT9.50DE99.00RA
25.00SQ2.80EX6.50HB0.50MJ97.30GB36.60UB24.50FR16.4 0QX1.40IZ
9.60IT2.60VT

FYI, if you avoid connecting in LHR you'd save a small fortune on these tickets...$80.00+ per pax just to connect thru LHR.

LHR is one of the city we are visiting.. so I can't avoid that.. :( But I did avoid the AC direct flight... otherwise, I might need to pay over $1000 per PAX just on tax.

My Mini RTW - Thank You all
 

I spent quite a bit of time reading FT and really appreciate the forum. THANK YOU ALL.

AC: YYZ-SFO
NZ: SFO-AKL-BNE - 14 day stop
TG: BNE-BKK-PVG - 5 day stop
TG:PVG-BKK-LHR - 14 day stop
CO:LHR-EWR-YYZ

100K points + $371.86 + $33.90

Cheers.

YYZ-ORD UA Y
ORD-LAX UA J
LAX-ICN OZ J
ICN-HKG OZ J (stop)
HKG-BKK TG J
BKK-PER TG J (turnaround)
PER-SIN SQ Y :(
SIN-IST SQ J (stop)
IST-JFK TK J
LGA-YYZ AC J

100K Miles + $268.86 tax/surcharge

I haven't booked it yet, but here is the planned route

Mini-RTW but without any stopovers. I only have time to reach TPE as destination

YYZ-NRT AC J
NRT-TPE NH J
...
TPE-SIN SQ J
SIN-BKK TG Y <- no J
BKK-ZRH TG J
ZRH-YUL LX J
YUL-YYZ AC J

$354.xx + $30 booking fee

Now only if I can find any alternative of not flying AC on YYZ-NRT to avoid crazy fees...

Just booked YYZ-YWG-YYZ for 1 adult and 1 child

25 K miles + $160.28 per passenger

YYZ-(ORD/IAD/JFK/SFO/LAX)-NRT with the transpac on NH.

Ha, I have tried them all, including SEAttle as well.. or go through ICN instead
Only available route is YYZ-SFO-NRT on AC/UA853 but I don't want UA old 777 Biz class even for lower fees

did you check the LAX-HND-TSA route?
or potentially even YYZ-YVR-HNL-HND?