Fuel surcharge and award ticket. How European carriers are doing.
We have said it many times, booking an award ticket to fly around the world, alone or in [...]
We have said this several times, Book an award ticket to fly around the world, alone or in company, Is like an obstacle treasure hunt, but the reward repays all the sweaty shirts.
In this article:
First of all, we need to pick up points on the way, always careful not to make mistakes or mis-strategize, then we need to avoid stumbling over obstacles that may hit us daily and that we cannot control, ad example the devaluation of points. Finally, we must be careful, when we are now on the finish line, not to be hit by the final blow, that of the fees and surcharges that the companies also demand when it comes to a prize ticket.
What is the fuel surcharge and other excise taxes on the ticket
Fuel is the expense item that alone is worth 25-30% of the total costs incurred by a carrier. Therefore, for decades now, to guard against fluctuations in the price of kerosene, companies have introduced the "fuel surcharge." Contrary to what you might think, however, carriers do not pay to fill up the tank on the day they do it, as is the case with our filling up at the gas pump. Carriers sign agreements many months in advance, even 2 years, to ensure certain costs. This allows them to be able to manage any upward surges over time by updating their ticket rates.
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You could get up to 600€ compensation per person
Unfortunately for passengers, the reaction speed is only there in one direction, certainly not when the price of the barrel drops. The fuel surcharge is definitely the biggest item to affect the ticket, then there are also airport taxes and other hikes such as the new city tax so disliked by Ryanair.
All these items go into the final cost of the ticket, even when it is an award ticket.
In this first example we analyze a Linate -Fiumicino round-trip ticket: against a cost of 135€, there is 45€ in fare, which is the cost of the pure ticket, while 90€ is in taxes with the fuel surcharge (YR) worth 22€, practically half the fare.
The impact of the fuel surcharge is even more evident in this example. To travel from Rome to New York and back, the cost of the ticket is 476.54€. The fare is 144.08€ to which is added 332.46€ in taxes. As much as 231€, or 70%, is the weight of the Carrier Imposed Surcharge, which is nothing but the new name for the fuel surcharge.
How do the major companies operating in Italy behave
At the moment, it is impossible to know what ITA Airways will require from passengers who book an award ticket using Volare points, Alitalia had a cost that did not vary depending on the class of travel and impacted about 300 euros on a ticket from Rome to Tokyo.
Things are not so bad, however, because there are also ways to avoid paying taxes, and we explain this at the end of this article.
The absolute worst is Lufthansa
The German carrier is, without a doubt, one of the most exorbitant companies when it comes to fees and surcharges associated with the award ticket. Flying in the nose tip of 747/8 of the Frankfurt-based company is certainly one of the most coveted goals of reward travelers, however, it comes at no small additional cost. In fact, LH calculates taxes and surcharges based on the class of travel, so an award ticket in first will cost an average of about €1,200 . If, on the other hand, one settles for an award seat in economy, it drops to just over 250€.
Of course, the music does not change if you book with the other group companies such as Swiss and Austrian.
British Airways is not the worst (if you leave from Italy)
Singular that two of the worst airlines are the two major carriers on the old continent. BA discounts not only the fuel surcharge but also the very high taxes imposed by the British government. Air Passenger Duty (APD) is calculated according to class of travel and can run close to £150 for a flight departing England in business class.
Fortunately for us ,booking an award ticket with a first flight out of Italy avoids APD and thus can save quite a bit of money, above is an example of a business ticket that Has a cost in "taxes" of €661.33
NB. In contrast, for flights from Italy to UK, using Avios points is very convenient.
Other European airlines, for example. Air France and KLM, charge less exorbitant surcharges. Always flying from Milan to New York has an approximate cost of just under €250 in taxes, an identical figure between economy and business class.
Then among all the European carriers there is one that stands out in sympathy and that is Finnair. The Helsinki-based carrier not only zeroed out the fuel surcharge from award tickets, but it has also eliminated almost all fees bringing the economic cost to the lowest levels of all EU-made carriers. Thus an award ticket to Bangkok has a fixed cost of less than €60.
One tip to avoid paying exorbitant amounts of fees is to use program points to book with partner carriers that have a different policy instead. Here is a comparison of using BA's Avios for a booking with Qatar or Finnair.
Flying business class with Finnair, using BA's Avios costs 198,500 Avios and only €62.73 in taxes.
The same booking with Qatar costs only 3000 Avios more, but as much as 611€ in taxes and surcharges.
In conclusion
This is the first installment devoted to the costs one must incur when booking an award ticket. The next one will be devoted to non-European airlines that fly to Italy and are easy to use thanks to the partnership with American Express Membership Rewards points.
