AHO

It's not the case according to what have been reported in a Scandinavian forum.

116 EUR is per direction for a Star Alliance award which involves long haul flights.
Many people have booked Europe-Australia/New Zealand R/T award with many long haul flights, but they have been charged only 116 EUR per direction (232 EUR for R/T), not 116 EUR per long haul flight crossing different IATA zones.

For example,
Stockholm-Frankfurt-San Francisco-Sydney-Auckland, Sydney-Bangkok-London-Stockholm.

There are 4 long haul flights in this booking:

1. Frankfurt-San Francisco
2. San Francisco-Sydney
3. Sydney-Bangkok
4. Bangkok-London

Except Sydney-Bangkok (which is intra Area 3), all other long haul flights are trans IATA zones. But people are charged only 232 EUR for R/T (+taxes).

AHO

Trip from Thailand does not exempt fuel surcharge, but THAI has decided not charge fuel surcharge on their flights.

Difference between Hong Kong and Brazil is,

• From Brazil: You won't be charged any fuel surcharge on entire trip as long as it's single booking.
• From Hong Kong: You won't be charged any fuel surcharge on Hong Kong-xxx v.v., but you still have to pay fuel surcharges on other segments.

SilverChris

Thanks for clarifying. I was once quoted EUR232 for Asia-Europe-US, so the agent advised me to go TPAC to halve the YQ, which left me with the impression that it was per area crossed rather than direction.

nacho

OP has HKG-NRT so there shouldn't be fuel surcharge, does it mean that the YQ charged to OP's ticket is pocketed by SK?

EUR 116 per leg YQ is actually cheap, TK charged me USD 600 for a J award on LH flight from Germany to Japan return.

cepylka

I guess, you're right, that SK who took my money. But I decided not to investigate any further. It's cheap anyway compare to a regular ticket on this route by ANA.

CPH-Flyer

SK does pocket the YQ that they are collecting. But the very high charges on for instance Lufthansa tickets (don't know if they are still there for SK redemptions) is probably somehow connected to what what LH charged SK for the award seat. So not directly a fuel surcharge, but more a 'recover part of the cost somehow' surcharge.

AHO

As I mentioned several times, SAS imposes their fixed amount of fuel surcharge per direction (not per segment) on Star Alliance award.
Sometime it's your favour (less than you should pay), sometime it's not your favour (more than you would have paid).

AHO

You can call SAS and ask them to specify all taxes. It may be good for all of us to know how much they charge on short haul award.
But it's probably a good idea to wait some days as their call centres are overloaded at moment because of strike (strike itself is over).

It has been a discussion about this in a Scandinavian forum.
One theory is, to simplify tax calculation.
They have historical records of previous awards and they should know how much fuel surcharge they have charged totally.
Then make a calculation and may have come to a conclusion that 116 EUR per direction is enough for a Star Alliance award which involves long haul flight.

Advantage of this method is, less time for calculation of the taxes of a complicated award.
If there are too many complicated awards, the work load of the fare calculation staff must be high.
More work load of the staffs means that it costs more money for SAS.

As a merchant says, "if you have black numbers in the end of the book year, you don't care about how it becomes."

cepylka

As for now I have 2 position in my e-ticket: Taxes, Fees, Other Charges - approx. 27 euro and Domestic/International Fees - approx. 39 euro. The latter was mentioned as fuel surcharge by the agent who issued my tickets.
And I will take your advise and call them sometimes in a week or two. Thanks

AHO

It sounds familiar.

I don't know about the fuel surcharge for intra-Asia, but for intra-Europe is 39 EUR per direction (no fuel surcharges on SAS & Wideroe flights).

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nacho

This is what I'm suspecting as well - the ticketing carrier pocket the $. LH and TK are notorious in charging excessive YQ for award tickets. I doubt that SK will charge anyone EUR 116 per long haul on LH/TK and is ok with that - if they do I don't think SK can still maintain the one fixed fee scheme (I'm sure bloggers will spread this great news to their subscribers).

I did a redemption with SK a long time ago for a SQ flight HKG-SIN and return (1 ticket with SK points and 4 with SQ points). The ticket issued by SK is a bit more expensive than those issued by SQ and they charged me a "ticket issuing fee" of SEK 50.

The term fuel surcharge is simply BS - now that the oil price is so low and how can airlines/ferry companies put in a surcharge when there's no such thing? I think it's better to just call it "recovery charge". I know it's just a name but still.

SilverChris

Intra-Asia should be about EUR39 as well, except maybe domestic Japanese flights. As long as one remains within an IATA area it should be around EUR39 (with the exception of certain domestic markets).

oliver2002

Who 'pockets' the YQ collected is determined by the individual bilateral interline agreement SAS has with the operating carrier. Some operating carriers get the YQ, some don't.

SilverChris

Do Japanese domestic itineraries get hit with the fuel surcharge? I was under the impression that awards for travel entirely within US and Japan are exempted, but was just quoted a rather high amount of surcharges for TYO-CTS on NH.

AHO

You can report it to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan, if the award travel is entirely within Japan.
Any airlines are not allowed to charge fuel surcharge if the air travel is entirely within Japan.