January 14, 2011

Summary of North American airlines charges fuel surcharge for award redemption

As you may already know, unlike other frequent flyer programs in other countries, most programs of North American airlines don’t charge fuel surcharge when you redeem miles for awards, but there are few exceptions, they don’t pay these fuel charge to the operating airlines, they keep in their pocket as their own revenue.

1 United, Continental, US airways don’t charge fuel surchage on any airlines to anywhere

2 Air Canada collects fuel surcharge only on their own metal

3 American airlines collects fuel surcharge on British Airways redemption, but they made public announcement about it.

4 Delta is a “special” one, they try to figure out way to make money in every possible way and they do collect fuel for many airlines, here are list at my knowledge

  • Delta, Alaska, Airfrance, Aitalia, KLM and Korean Airline, aeromexico, air Europa, kingfisher and jet airways no fuel charge
  • Aeroflot, China Eastern, China Southern, V Australia Airlines, China airlines, Tarom Airlines, Vietnam airlines, Air Tahiti,  Malaysia airlines all collects fuel charges, so that make economy class redemption on those flights using delta miles no longer worth it.(except China domestic, fuel very low)
  • Avianca, Czech airlines, Kenya Airways and Hawaii airlines, no experience, but I think they don’t collect for Kenya and Czech because they were old member of Skyteam

The most interesting part about Air Tahiti was, I have an award on 2 of their flights from NRT-PPT-AKL, then return with Korean air, total taxes was $100 USD, but the ticket was issued back in September of last year. Back in December and this month, I also issued several Air Tahiti flight from CDG-LAX, but fuel was collected, I thought the charge was by route. Today, I called in to modify my tickets issued in September by 1 day and was told to pay $330 per person in taxes. they check for me, YQ was showed, which means DL just added YQ for Air Tahiti not too long ago.

The good thing for me was I can change my flight after I flew all Air Tahiti segments, but for any new reservations with airlines charge fuel, economy class redemption are not really worth it.

Posted by Troy under American Airlines, Award redemption, Continental Airline, Delta, United Airlines, US airways | 14 Comments to Read

  1. Airlines that Tax You When You Redeem Your Miles (and Those that Do Not) - View from the Wing said,

    [...] Travel World runs down the fuel surcharges added to award tickets by various carriers. Bottom-line is that most North [...]

  2. Damaxer said,

    Your info on MH redemption with Skymiles is incorrect. Delta now DOES charge the fuel surcharges and you are charged at the time of booking. I recently booked MEL-LHR-MEL and the fuel surcharges were more than USD $700

  3. Chris said,

    For Delta, are you only referring to flights originating in the US? I recently tried pricing award tickets on Delta from Europe back to the US and the “taxes and surcharges” were at least $400. They were less than ~$100 when leaving from the US.

  4. JohnnieD said,

    So,when AA charges fuel surcharges for BA they keep it?? So, who is less costly, AA or BA?

  5. Nun said,

    In fairness, when you mention UA it’s worth stating that although there’s no YQ, UA simply blocks awards on their biggest European partner.

  6. Troy said,

    @ chris, Fuel is charged depends on carriers regardless where you trip starts or ends, none of your $400 from EU are fuel surcharge, they are called” International origination fee”

  7. Troy said,

    @JohnnieD, AA is a little diff for BA, they MAY give to BA because AA made everyone aware of this change, but for other airlines, they just keep it. who is less costly? if you are talking about using AA or BA miles for BA flights, then the fee are same, only difference in miles

  8. Troy said,

    @Nun, that’s sure, but it won’t affect too much because u can try to take other carriers

  9. kopirhyte said,

    spelling error:

    2 Air Canada collects fuel surcharge only on their own mental

    mental = metal ;)

  10. Troy said,

    @Kopihyte, thanks, :P

  11. *A Carriers with Fuel Surcharges on award tickets? - FlyerTalk Forums said,

    [...] doing a bit more searching (took me a while to find this!) I found this post at boarding area: http://boardingarea.com/blogs/tmtrav…re-redemption/ Says that UA, CO, and US do not charge a fuel surchage no matter what airline we redeem on. Dated [...]

  12. Is DL charging YQ for partner redemptions? - Page 4 - FlyerTalk Forums said,

    [...] There's really no issue whatsoever. DL have been charging YQ on some partners since day 1, but they don't have YQ on most skyteam partners. For details, see http://boardingarea.com/blogs/tmtrav…re-redemption/ [...]

  13. Delta charges fuel surcharges on partner awards - how soon UACO will follow? - FlyerTalk Forums said,

    [...] – no YQ. I know MH has been charged forever at checkin. Anyway, this is the complete list http://boardingarea.com/blogs/tmtrav…re-redemption/ And it is dated 1/14/11 so DL have been charging SU YQ at least since [...]

  14. Dunkirk said,

    Troy, “fuel surcahrge” = “international origination fee” in Delta’s lingo.

    If you compare ex-US and ex-EU taxes and fees for the same Delta operated flights, the difference is exactly what Delta charges as YQ on revenue tickets. What a coincidence… :)

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