Logistics of YQ for *A award ticket
Jan 12, 2013, 10:59 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2005
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Logistics of YQ for *A award ticket
Hello all,
Just got curious about logistics of FS among *A award, especially between one carrier which doesn't and the other one which does charge YQ. For example, UA don't charge YQ for ANY of *A award flight, where OZ do for ALL *A ticket redeemed with their miles.
...So, 1) if I redeem a UA award ticket with OZ miles, what happens to my paid YQ for that segment? Do OZ transfer YQ to UA, or just keep it in their pocket?
2) On opposite case, if I Redeem a OZ award ticket with UA miles, do OZ 'charge' YQ to UA?
Anything known about the flow?
Thanks,
edta450
Just got curious about logistics of FS among *A award, especially between one carrier which doesn't and the other one which does charge YQ. For example, UA don't charge YQ for ANY of *A award flight, where OZ do for ALL *A ticket redeemed with their miles.
...So, 1) if I redeem a UA award ticket with OZ miles, what happens to my paid YQ for that segment? Do OZ transfer YQ to UA, or just keep it in their pocket?
2) On opposite case, if I Redeem a OZ award ticket with UA miles, do OZ 'charge' YQ to UA?
Anything known about the flow?
Thanks,
edta450
Jan 12, 2013, 1:08 pm
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: BOS / ICN
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Posts: 250
Umm.. Sorry If I confused you, but I meant *A award, or 'award seats from OZ flight redeemed with UA miles and v.v., per an agreement among star alliance members'.
Jan 12, 2013, 4:31 pm
#4
Join Date: May 2007
Location: YOW
Posts: 2,351
I don't think that you will be able to get an answer to your question. The transfer of funds to pay for points tickets is proprietary information that is not known to the public.
With that said though, it would appear that the ticketing airline just pockets any YQ that they collect. This came out in 2011 when Aeroplan started charging YQ for airlines other than AC.
This caused quite an uproar and AE or AC (can't remember which) tried calming the savages by telling us that the YQ was being charged at the request of the ticketing airline to try and deflect us into thinking that this was a request by the operating carriers. They never clarified this by saying that the money was going straight to AC but they also never denied this. This is around the time when AC just gave up on trying to have discussions on FT because the environment was too toxic.
The YQ money might just be used to subsidize the purchase of the tickets from the operating carriers, who knows.
With that said though, it would appear that the ticketing airline just pockets any YQ that they collect. This came out in 2011 when Aeroplan started charging YQ for airlines other than AC.
This caused quite an uproar and AE or AC (can't remember which) tried calming the savages by telling us that the YQ was being charged at the request of the ticketing airline to try and deflect us into thinking that this was a request by the operating carriers. They never clarified this by saying that the money was going straight to AC but they also never denied this. This is around the time when AC just gave up on trying to have discussions on FT because the environment was too toxic.
The YQ money might just be used to subsidize the purchase of the tickets from the operating carriers, who knows.
Jan 13, 2013, 1:29 pm
#5
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Like the previous poster said, no one knows, an airline insider should be the best one to answer.
Jan 13, 2013, 3:15 pm
#6
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Jan 14, 2013, 2:43 am
#8
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Jan 14, 2013, 4:38 pm
#9
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On award tickets, the operating carrier basically charges the ticketing carrier a predetermined amount for a flight segment that is flown. When submitting the charge, they would typically submit the YQ charge plus other taxes relating to that flight to the ticketing carrier as well.
For ticketing carriers that don't charge their FF program members YQ, they basically eat the cost of the YQ when the bill comes in from the operating carrier.
However, once this cost becomes unbearable (to the point where they can't make a reasonable profit), they would then charge their FF program members the YQ that is billed to them by the operating carrier.
Observation: Some award ticketing carriers such as AA don't charge YQ on most award tickets (with the exception of BA flights), however, they do sell miles (sometimes with generous bonuses) to their customers and can perhaps make a profit that way. Whereas carriers such as OZ (which charges YQ on all partner awards) typically are less generous in selling miles to their customers (maybe they don't even sell miles as well?) and need to collect YQ to offset their costs.
For ticketing carriers that don't charge their FF program members YQ, they basically eat the cost of the YQ when the bill comes in from the operating carrier.
However, once this cost becomes unbearable (to the point where they can't make a reasonable profit), they would then charge their FF program members the YQ that is billed to them by the operating carrier.
Observation: Some award ticketing carriers such as AA don't charge YQ on most award tickets (with the exception of BA flights), however, they do sell miles (sometimes with generous bonuses) to their customers and can perhaps make a profit that way. Whereas carriers such as OZ (which charges YQ on all partner awards) typically are less generous in selling miles to their customers (maybe they don't even sell miles as well?) and need to collect YQ to offset their costs.
Last edited by daniellam; Jan 14, 2013 at 4:43 pm