I think, I've just been tricked by SAS representative by amount of taxes taken
 

I called to Eurobonus to get 2 Award tickets in Economy for HKG-NRT flight by ANA. They asked for 30000 points and apr. 1200NOK taxes (so it was 600NOK per passenger). I agreed, but raised a questions why there were so much taxes. Just because it was second time me calling them, firstly I had decided to get just one ticket for Bisness (same route, same day, same airline) and they issued a ticket for 30000 points and apr. 330 NOK (and nothing else), and then I decided to return that ticket.
They said that previously the agent didn't calculate a fuel surcharge. And they have to add it. Now I have these economy tickets issued and taxes collected, but I'm in doubt.
I cheked these tickets on ANA website, and there were no such tax as fuel surcharge, and taxes were about 300 NOK, which seemed about right.
I did dummy booking on Wideroe site for OSL-HKG HKG-NRT NRT-OSL (1 ticket, Economy) and got quote for taxes - 2940NOK, then another dummy for OSL-HKG and NRT-OSL and got 2683 NOK, so the difference is 300 NOK again.
I have M&M miles, I called them before all this and they also said that taxes should be around 300NOK for 1 ticket for Economy.
I could be mistaken, and taxes for regular ticket are not the same as for award ticket, but why did they issue my first ticket with half amount of taxes and why there are some mystical fuel surcharge if ANA don't even collect one.
How I can check it for sure and is there a possibility to get some refund if I'm right, if the tickets were issued already?

The fuel surcharge for award tickets is a special thing that is charged by many airlines (which also don't charge it often on discount revenue fares). I have no idea whether it is standard to charge YQ on ANA tickets when bought with EB points. I have no prior experience.

For a revenue ticket you should be charged about 3500 yen in economy and 4500 in business class for a one way ticket from Hong Kong to Tokyo. So slightly less or slightly more than 300 NOK. But there are differences between revenue and award tickets.

On my last redemption on NH I paid DKK 3416 in cash for a TPAC return ticket. Though that was in late 2015 so tricky compare.

SAS charges fixed amount of fuel surcharge regardless the number of flights per direction on Star Alliance award.
116 EUR per direction if it includes long haul flight.
I don't know how much the fix amount is if it's short haul award (like within Asia).


If I understand your comment correctly, you have booked:
1. first award ticket: Oslo-(via somewhere)-Hong Kong // open jaw // Tokyo-(via somewhere)-Oslo
2, second award ticket: Hong Kong-Tokyo one way by ANA

If the first award ticket is solely by SAS, you don't have to pay fuel surcharge at all.
But if the first award ticket is Star Alliance award and includes partner airlines flights both outbound and inbound, you have to pay 116 EUR x 2 for fuel surcharge (not taxes).

On the second award ticket you have to pay a fixed amount of fuel surcharge governed by SAS (not by ANA), but I don't know how much it is.

Thank you all for your answers
No, not quite right. I have separate tickets for OSL-HKG and NRT-OSL with OW carrier (Finnair to be exact).I've only got HKG-NRT award tickets. I understand now, that SAS can charge me for fuel surchage themself, but question is yet how much?

If it's a combination of:
1, Finnair ticket: Oslo-Helsinki-Hong Kong // open jaw // Tokyo-Helsinki-Oslo
2, SAS EuroBonus award ticket: Hong Kong-Tokyo one way by ANA

Why did you calculate the sum of the taxes and fuel surcharges together from the beginning?
It's totally unnecessary and confusing.
If you doubt overcharge by SAS, you should calculate only SAS award part.

I'm sorry if I mislead you, but it was just one of the examples I quoted to prove my point. Other examples as M&M awards have similar taxes. I may be don't understand the concept, thats why I wrote my question here - to get some help.
And I can't use any Eurobonus charts, they don't give taxes for Star Alliance flights, just amount of points.

HKGNRT in J attracts 34€ (~319NOK) in taxes and surcharges, even when plated on SK 117 stock.

I just checked ITA Matrix.

ANA does not charge YQ for Y tickets HKG-NRT.

Here is the fare construction for a random Y ticket in Oct.(the important part is in bold):

HKG NH TYO 596.55URFJ0O NUC 596.55 END ROE 7.79469 XT 90G3 120HK 45I5

HKG depart. tax is 90 HKD,
HKG construction fee 120 HKD
HKG security Charge 45 HKD.

So ANA doesn't charge YQ but SAS does? I'm not sure how I can check it. If I call SAS again, they propaply will say me the same amount. I don't have any arguments, I guess. And I've already paid them taxes.

As I told you, SAS charges a fixed amount of fuel surcharge per direction when you book Star Alliance award.
This does not apply when you book:

• solely within USA
• solely within Japan
• solely within Brazil

I know the amount for award travel which includes long haul flight (116 EUR per direction), but I don't know how much it is for award travel which includes short haul flight only.

I thought fuel surcharges were not allowed from HKG Thailand Brazil etc? Or perhaps I remember incorrectly?

Its been reported many times on FT that it has often little to do with what the operating airline charges. The YQ charges (AKA scam charges) are quite often added by the selling airline/FFP.

This is my understanding also, just like Brazil.

SK goes by the number of IATA areas crossed when calculating YQ. Within one area (e.g. area 1-area 1; HKG-NRT) it should be ~€36 unless it's wholly within one of those YQ-exempt countries. For instance, US-US would be YQ free but US-CA attracts the scam charge.

It's €116 for each area crossed. If you fly TPAC from Asia to US it'll be one area crossed (3 to 1), so it'll be €116. If you fly via Europe, it'll be Area 3-2-1, so €232.

Whether this is good or bad depends on your itinerary.

The operating carrier shouldn't levy surcharges, but I'm not sure if the issuing carrier (SK) cares. In this case SK doesn't base their YQ calculation on what the operating carrier charges, so I'm not surprised it's levied ex-HKG

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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."

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

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).

Fast summa av bränsletillägg på Star Alliance award med Eurobonus | Sida 4 | BusinessClass.se forum | 500 000 inlägg om resor

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

If it is charged as a fuel surcharge yes. But most airlines don't call the surcharges on the award tickets fuel, they are typically in another bucket.