FFlash

You know the answer yourself what is fair, right? If it is shorter and more obvious route, then the lower miles should apply. But if the transit involves a longer and less obvious route, then higher miles should apply. Right? Logical at least for me

sony2012

I think there are allowed routings vs not allowed ones. The ones we are discussing are allowed and shorter and they do see the required miles correctly but it changes once you put the ticket on hold. If using the higher region makes sense for tk, they should have it in the rule. They also should not price/quote these at the departure/arrival region calculation first because it creates inconsistency when you actually try to book it after transfering or collecting miles etc.

i tried hard with tk but nothing worked, so i went to DOT. It seems to me that the only way is to complain to DOT. Please do so if you have the same issue so that tk is forced to fix it. It takes only a few minutes link to DOT complaint

LH4116

Just completed my fourth successful Miles&Smiles Star Alliance award redemption at the Arlanda Airport ticket desk.

Booked IST-SIN (stopover) SIN-ICN and ICN-SIN-IST on Singapore Airlines for July 2018. All in Business Class on the Boeing 777-200ER and Airbus A330-300 for 90 000 miles + $70 in taxes. By far some of the best value I've gotten for my miles, and I'm much looking forward to trying Singapore Airlines long haul Business Class.

nacho

$70 taxes for that routing? How's that possible? That's incredibly cheap! My LH J redemption (DE to Japan) is more like $600! HKG-SIN Y return with SQ with SK miles was like $50/ticket.

LH4116

They charge whatever the operating airline charges in taxes and fuel surcharges. Singapore Airlines along with Thai and ANA don't take out any fuel surcharges on their flights, hence why you only pay the taxes. My Thai Airways redemption CPH-BKK-SIN-BKK-ARN earlier this year was only $50 in taxes, and the same goes for my two ANA redemptions last year.

nacho

Interesting, either SAS cheated me on the YQ for a SQ ticket, or they have removed the charge since. UA doesn't have surcharge but I was quote outrageous YQ on domestic US flights using TK miles. I might see if I can try to redeem flights with TG/SQ instead next time. Thanks for the heads up!

zennie

I got an award ticket from M&S recently and since the available rules are very vague, I figure it may be useful for some to share my experience.

I was interested in a F ticket PRG/VIE to Japan. Or get one direction in F and C in the other one. My idea was to get LH (since it seemed that the airlines can't be combined easily in award ticket) or TG (would have to get a ticket from FRA or another airport, but I'd be okay with that).

TK office in Prague never replied to any of my emails that I've sent from September to November and since I was in Asia most of the autumn, I didn't want to make a phone call. When asking at TK Twitter or Facebook for alternate contact, I was always given universal answer telling me their email (that nobody ever answers) and phone number. I only got one sample itinerary from a TK employee, whose email address had been given to me by a friend. She confirmed available one seat in each direction not in my requested dates, but just few days earlier, and told me to contact the main office email address if I want to request the seat (which I did to no avail again). The itinerary was a return PRG-FRA-HND with both long legs operated by NH.

So when I finally arrived back to PRG, I went to visit their office with the itinerary printed out. The availability changed again but they were quite quick to find another one. All long-hauls operated by NH, I assume it has something to do with what some members wrote in this forum - the LH F availability only appears about 2 weeks before departure.

I did get this ticket. NH would have been one of my choices but I didn't expect to get this offer since I thought the rules were prohibiting combining more airlines (except TK+1) in the itinerary. I was also sceptical about the feeder from PRG in C, since according to what I'd read here, I'd expect to be charged extra for that (since it's "mixing classes"). But I was not.

I asked if one way was possible (thinking about returning not to Europe but directly combining with a business trip I need to go to just after) and they couldn't do it - maybe because of mixing classes/airlines, I believe ow awards have more restrictive rules. I also wanted to ask for connecting flights in Japan (outbound to KMQ, returning back from CTS). They said KMQ doesn't even come up in their system (strange, there are several daily flights on NH from HND) and CTS does, but it was not possible to put this in my itinerary (no reason specified, according to all available info I have, this could be possible and maybe I should have tried insisting, but it was not that important so I did not).

The price was 135 000 miles (as in the chart Europe-Far East) + 5018 CZK (approx 200 EUR), about half of which is the YQ for the LH hop from PRG.

craigthemif

I just completed a partner award booking for TG for FRA-BKK in Business Class and it was relatively painless.

Called the 1-800 number in the US. Asked to book an award on a partner airline. Fed the agent the precise flight details. (it may or may not have helped that TK didn't have any availability that day for its own metal) After five minutes, I had a PNR.

Went over to Barcelona airport this afternoon, expecting based on the data points in this thread to spend a couple of hours at least. After 15 minutes or so, I was asked to pay 110 euros in tax and a small YQ - roughly what I expected from a Matrix search. Walked away with a print-out of my e-ticket. ^

Wish I had tried it earlier. Could have saved myself a fair amount of YQ on previous TK rewards...

LH4116

SAS have fixed YQ's for all Star Alliance flights issued on 117-stock. I believe it's around €120 per way in YQ which is charged regardless if the airline takes out YQ or not. For instance you'll be losing out when flying Thai or Singapore Airlines since those airlines don't take out YQ on their own flights. The only exception where YQ isn't charged on Star Alliance flights is US domestic flights on United.

sinus

I am so disappointed with the award booking experience. I have booked domestic flight in Guatemala with Avianca, the call centre luckily found the availability and booked it and sent me to TK office to issue the ticket. When I finally found the office in LAX which could process it via e-mail, they want me to pay too high taxes.

When booking with UA, LH or A3 miles, the total tax is 2.70 USD. TK wants me to pay 59.70 USD which is:
TAX USD XB 26.00
TAX USD QQ 2.70
TAX USD YQ 31.00

YQ shouldn't be charged as Avianca doesn't require it for award bookings. And XB is Guatemala Value Added Tax which also shouldn't be taken as the fare is 0 USD. Lady who calculated the taxes used fare 217 USD which is ridiculous.

Looks like they cheat on the taxes. Any chance to force them to charge only 2.70 USD?

SK AAR

Don't issue the ticket and try book again/have the ticket issued at another ticket office.'

It is quite common for value added tax (if value added tax i paybale) to be calculated on the bais of a phantom fare when dealing with award tickets.

sinus

@SK AAR easy to say... I have emailed more than 10 offices. They either send me to the webpage to book the ticket (lol), ask to come in person or if keen to issue the ticket, they want to charge me those high taxes. Office in WAW even wants $80 for that ticket.

craigthemif

Unfortunately you might be mixing up apples and pears. It is the frequent flyer programme that decides whether or not to pass along YQ. You're aren't booking with LifeMiles, you're booking with Miles & Smiles. If Avianca - the airline - charges YQ, M&S can choose to pass that along.

M&S have also been known to invent YQ (i.e. United U.S. domestic) and there's no way around that.

sinus

@craigthemif so why YQ is not charged when I book Avianca tickets with LH miles? And LH for their connections and most of other *A flights charge pretty high YQ. I know by experience that AV, CA and NZ are the airlines with 0 YQ when booking award tickets, with any miles.

Gnopps

I agree, this looks strange. AV doesn'g charge any domestic YQ, even when issued on TK: