Airline Fuel and Insurance Surcharge (YQ)

[noidea]

Of course..yes...I think it was SGD...makes sense.
I am the only one feeling outraged by these surcharges? They basically make my points worthless if purchasing a economy ticket which I will pretty much always be doing due to a family of 4. I don't know....maybe I'm just ignorant and naive! I feel like they need to be reported to some consumer watchdog body but not sure who...and maybe I'm the only one who feels this way! It just seems to deceiving to let people think they can redeem their flights (at little cost) with points they get for spending money when in fact the points are relatively worthless. I'll get off my soap box now.

Can anyone find out what the YQ might be for an Air Canada flight SYD YVR LAX YVR SYD?

I had a really nice guy at SQ checking availability for me on UA in September, October, November (figure there's no point checking December) on direct flights from SYD but all he could only ever get us flights to LAX and not back. He was going off to check if he could get us connecting flights on the way home but haven't heard from him for 2 days so think he's ditched me...

I don't think we're going to LAX on these points...

 

[anat0l]

Of course..yes...I think it was SGD...makes sense.
I am the only one feeling outraged by these surcharges? They basically make my points worthless if purchasing a economy ticket which I will pretty much always be doing due to a family of 4. I don't know....maybe I'm just ignorant and naive! I feel like they need to be reported to some consumer watchdog body but not sure who...and maybe I'm the only one who feels this way! It just seems to deceiving to let people think they can redeem their flights (at little cost) with points they get for spending money when in fact the points are relatively worthless. I'll get off my soap box now.

Ask many Americans - they'll join your cause.

Jokes and shots aside.... in theory before even Y redemptions made great sense. In some cases they still do, but in the advent of bottom-pushing prices, it's getting much more difficult.

Take SYD-LAX for example. In the old days, the price of a Y return fare on this route was probably at cheapest $1400 or so. Competition came along and now the nominal cheap price is barely over $1000. Compounding this is that fuel gets more expensive and airlines, in an attempt not to be "out of the game", give up the base fare in return for raising the "fuel". Of course, this also has the subtle effect of collecting more for award redemptions.

When the Y price is fairly high, Y redemptions make more sense, and everything is magnified when you have more pax. High price Y tickets are typically only on routes where the price is genuinely high (usually not common routes), or when sales fares are gone (viz. there may be no cheap fares left but at least there are award seats).


In America I believe it is almost patently wrong to have YQ. When the banks took greater charge in helping the ailing airlines and their frequent flyer programs, of course they had to make sure that customers could use their points or else no one would bother getting airline-affiliated credit cards. Not to mention that airlines made a big deal of saying you can get "free tickets" if you get enough points. Hence, it made sense to the airlines to avoid high YQ (or any YQ) in order to make the sale.

This is rarely the case outside of America. There are also some odd exceptions even in America (e.g. if I recall correctly, BA forces YQ to be collected on Trans-Atlantic tickets issued by AA).


It stands to reason that points aren't necessarily worthless but they are only worth something to someone if they can use them to get what they want in accordance with the market and model. In short that is why most people on this forum are more interested in premium redemptions using points rather than Y redemptions.

Can anyone find out what the YQ might be for an Air Canada flight SYD YVR LAX YVR SYD?

ITA search gives AUD 500 for a return flight for one passenger.

 

[noidea]

Thanks anat0l...you've been a great help. Yep I understand what you're saying...but I'm still annoyed.. LOL
And totally makes sense about the premium redemptions...have been wondering if I wait a year or two if I'll be able to get the extra 180k miles for business class for 3 of us on one of the star alliance airlines like air nz. I spend about 20k a quarter on my tax bill on amex but that's not going to do it alone especially since I need to really do this holiday before my son turns 2 in september 2014.

Thanks again for being so helpful and friendly to a new member.

 

[isdnman]

Is there any airline redemption doesn't have to pay YQ ?

 

[StevePER]

Is there any airline redemption doesn't have to pay YQ ?

Yes, NZ redemptions (at least between Australia and New Zealand).

 

[wxxnxs]

Is there any airline redemption doesn't have to pay YQ ?

Yes, all Amercian airlines not include AC & EK, EY. Avoiding southeast Asia airlines, they normally charge heaps of YQ, SQ & MH are typical examples.