JOUY31

There are other differences between the US and the European markets; among them
- non cancellable / non refundable tickets are lost in Europe in case of no-shows, they can be used for the purchase of new tickets in the US
- full fare Y in Europe does not allow you to change airlines, in the US it does

So, there are specificities for regional markets. Whether they fall in the category of unfair or anti-competitive practices will be determined on a case by case basis. Some of them will be judged illegal, others will not.

neuromancer

I don't want to pay fuel surcharges for award tickets too, but has anyone thought what would happen if this practice stops? They will simply increase the cost in miles of an award ticket - the terms of the program allow them to do it, so they will do it.

I personally prefer to know that when I reach the treshold, I can get the award ticket, instead of having a constantly increasing cost and never being able to reach it.

JOUY31

As the cost of fuel has been lower than 65 USD a barrel over the last 30 days, AF is honoring its commitment to rescind its last fuel surcharge :

- 1 EUR for French domestic flights
- 2 EUR for a medium-haul flight
- 7 EUR for a long-haul flight

This decision applies to tickets sold starting October 6th.

stimpy

Wow! I wonder what motivated them to do the honorable thing. It couldn't have been honor, could it?

chrissxb

if you're already ticketed, do they reimburse you?

ranskis

ah ben ça alors, quelle surprise! just after the end of the french special offer for long haul... the CDG NYC for 425 EUR, it would have been great to book it for 411 EUR instead...

Anyway, there will be a similar offer soon, total price will be the same, 14 EUR less in the taxes "box" and 14 EUR more to the base fare!

JOUY31

According to an interview given by Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, AF COO, to Le Parisien, AF could rescind a second fuel surcharge in early February. For long-haul flights, the decrease would be EUR 7, bringing down the total fuel surcharge on these flights (one way) to EUR 44.

rangerss75

I've been watching the oil price. It fell below $60 a barrel on January 4th, so the thirty days which trigger the above decrease should come into effect on February 3rd. It fell below $55 on January 11th, so I was looking forward to saying that another decrease (to 38 EUR Long-haul, 12 EUR Short-haul and 8 EUR Domestic) would probably come into effect a week later.

However the oil price popped above the $55 mark, for about five minutes, just half-an-hour ago. So even if it drops right back again (the weekly US oil stocks figure which is announced tomorrow at 16h30 Paris time is always a crucial factor) we shall have to start counting the 30 days again from tomorrow.

JOUY31

As anticipated and exactly in line with rangerss75's prediction , AF is once again honoring its commitment to lower its fuel surcharge. Effective February 3rd, AF is rescinding its last fuel surcharge, 7 EUR per long-haul segment.

Summary of current AF surcharges :

May 19, 2004 : EUR 3 (short-haul), EUR 3 (medium-haul), EUR 3 (long-haul)
Aug 24, 2004 : EUR 2 (short-haul), EUR 3 (medium-haul), EUR 12 (long-haul)
Oct 11, 2004 : EUR 0 (short-haul), EUR 0 (medium-haul), EUR 11 (long-haul)
Apr 12, 2005 : EUR 1 (short-haul), EUR 2 (medium-haul), EUR 8 (long-haul)
July 19, 2005 : EUR 1 (short-haul), EUR 2 (medium-haul), EUR 4 (long-haul)
Oct 4, 2005 : EUR 1 (short-haul), EUR 2 (medium-haul), EUR 6 (long-haul)

Total : EUR 8 (short-haul), EUR 12 (medium-haul), EUR 44 (long-haul)

Current fuel surcharges for other airlines :
- BA : GBP35 for long-haul flights > 9 hours, GBP 30 for long-haul flights < 9 hours, GBP 8 for other flights
- KL : EUR 50 for long-haul flights, EUR 21 for other flights
- LH : EUR 52 for long-haul flights, EUR 12 for other flights

JOUY31

The price of a barrel of oil is hovering around USD 57.

If the price goes down below USD 55 for a month, the next fuel surcharge to be rescinded would be :

- EUR 6 for long-haul flights
- EUR 2 for medium-haul flights
- EUR 1 for short-haul flights

apoivre

Hmmmm, interesting. So the big European 3 are basically in line with each other on medium-haul flights (GBP 8/EUR 12), but KL is EUR 21 a pop? Good to know

albireo

I just redeemed a long-haul (CDG-MRU) R/T reward and the "taxes" amounted to 157.18 euros per ticket, among which 96.00YQ. So I guess the current fuel surcharge is 48 euros per long haul segment, or is anything else included in YQ?

albireo

Calling Flying Blue and after they checked with AF they indeed confirmed that as of Feb. 3 the YQ surcharge that applies for long haul is 48 euros (12 euros for short haul and 16 euros for medium haul).

JOUY31

According to DGAC, the French civil aviation administration, YQ also includes additional insurance costs and security related costs, which were introduced in 2003 by airlines, following 9/11.


http://www.aviation-civile.gouv.fr/h...ager/pas29.pdf (in French)

JOUY31

So YQ includes both the fuel surcharge and an additional 4 EUR levied in a homogeneous fashion for short-haul, medium-haul and long-haul flights.