Expensive "free" flights
 

Hi all,

I just tried to redeem a free flight with points - TLV (Tel Aviv)-LHR-ORD (Chicago O'Hare) and return.

I was surprised and irritated to find that the "taxes" that I would need to pay myself are HK$2900 = US$371.
The explanation was that the fuel surcharge is high - HK$1400 - and the rest is airport taxes - LHR is extremely high. Also - even though I am booked on Premier Economy, my airport taxes are charged as Business class (even though PE is really Economy++).

Am I naive in expecting not to be charged so much?
Any ideas how I can get this astronomical fee back into the stratosphere?
Thanks,
Jonathan

Well don't blame it on being a redemption flight. If you were to buy the same ticket you would get charged the same taxes....plus the cost of the airfare.

When there is no need to fly via LHR then don't. It is one of the most expensive airport I stumbled upon in my short flying life... Unless you intend the use their lounges.

I had a similar situation, with a twist. I redeemed miles for a rt business class ticket, HNL-NRT-BKK, and ended up paying over US$150 for "taxes/fees". However, a few months later, I redeemed miles for the exactly same route a second time -- was charged just US$20 for taxes. :confused:

if the op is using cx miles to go tlv-ord?

how can he do this with out going via LHR?

Iberia: TLV-MAD-ORD?

The fuel surcharge amount varies by airline; currently BA is the highest and about double the AA amount, so you could save a considerable amount by not flying BA. Avoiding a stopover in London would also reduce your LHR departure tax (of GBP 40 or about USD 75) -- the tax is not for transit in LHR, only if you have a stopover at LHR/LGW. That tax is worded to be for "any class above the lowest class on a plane" by the UK govt, thus WT+ pays the same tax as J or F ... and Concorde when it operated did not pay this tax, despite being a super-F service, as it was a one-class plane so all the pax were in the lowest class, and tax-exempt. You could cut the taxes/fees roughly in half with careful choice of airline and routing.

one related question on fuel surcharge / taxes...what's the situation for codeshare flights ? e.g. for a flight I'm taking BKK-SYD...it's operated by BA but codeshare by QF as well...can I avoid the high BA surcharge by taking the QF codeshare ? (or is QF equally high as well?) Similarly for SYD-SFO, does the fuel surcharge diff between the QF flight # and the AA codeshare # ?

thanks a lot.

Great question, illustrating the whole point of codeshares -- you are the customer of the selling airline and not the operating airline. The amount of fuel surcharge is determined by the codeshare that you are taking. So the QF codeshare on BA will have a different fuel surcharge amount than BA (depending upon which month this is, it will be either higher or lower than BA -- QF has high fuel surcharges). On your AA/QF example, AA has a lower fuel surcharge but charges a higher base fare; often the AA fare is USD 200 higher than QF on the same flight, but after fuel surcharge the total is almost the same (within USD 30). I find "fuel surcharge" to be a deceptive business practice -- it obviously has nothing to do with buying the fuel for the flight, that is covered in the ticket price, instead it is just a "profit surcharge" meant to increase revenue and operating profits and is completely unrelated to the cost of fuel for the flight in question.

I'm actually taking these flights as part of a oneworld ticket...so there wouldn't be any difference in base fares, right ?

so...
(1) in general I should take AA # instead of QF # ?
(2) If I'm flying in May - should I take QF or BA # ?
(3) How about CX vs. AA ? e.g. SFO-HKG...should I take AA # or CX # ?

and, in general...what if I issue a segment with a certain airline, and then decide to switch to another airline ? would they ask me for the difference in fuel surcharge / tax ? or give me refund ? (probably no?)

or if I issue the segment as open carrier (can I do it in a oneworld ticket?) - what airline's surcharge/taxes would they use for that segment ?

thanks.

This isn't a CX issue but a OWE rule issue, and the rules do not specify. People have reported the practice that the issuing airline applies its fuel surcharge to the entire ticket, thus a BA-issued OWE has the BA fuel surcharge (even on non-BA sectors) while the same ticket isssued by AA has the AA surcharges (hundreds of dollars cheaper). It is unclear whether this practice is uniform by all issuing stations. You should continue this topic in the Oneworld forum instead of here. I expect the fuel surcharges are going up again soon (as in next week) and the OWE rules may impose a uniform (high) surcharge (again possibly before the end of April).