EK Award Availability - But Wow - those Carrier Charges!

[Pom-DownUnder]

Seeing more of EU to AU flights on EK for rewards but my WORD the carrier charges have hiked again i'm sure, 1,200 GBP one way in business???

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Its the UK AirpaxDuty, if you mean high taxes, in flying EK from the UK outwards.
They have to collect that, and remit it to the UK govt, so no hiding that one.
GBP200/Aud$373.
EK must know they are onto a good thing, and do make money doing what they do.
Maybe they earn more money doing freight work from Aust.
Wait till the ADL - DXB A350 flights start, that opens up another route, not sure by how much.

 

[serfty]

Its the UK AirpaxDuty, if you mean high taxes, in flying EK from the UK outwards.

No they don't mean UK APD; take the £200 off and you still have $1900 to deal with.

 

[TheRealTMA]

UK taxes are very high. Look at EK award flights from European capitals. Fees are much cheaper. Then get the Eurostar etc to the capital.

 

[Flyfrequently]

We had booked 2 oneway CR EK F (to Madrid and back from London) in 2019 for Aug 2020, taxes were about $800-900 each from memory.
Subsequently we were able to move the flights to mid 2021.
During that time, uninitiated, we received a refund of $500 approx each as EK taxes had dropped.
We then moved the flights to mid 2022 and taxes had gone up but not significantly, so we paid I think about $90 pp

Omicron came and we then moved the flights to later in 2022, increase in taxes, paid another $400 or so pp.

We then decided to cancel and get refund of points and taxes.

It was a nightmare and initially the first refund of taxes was calculated at $200 ish per pax as that is all the agent could see as our initial flights had been "archived".
After many calls and finding my paper trail with Amex statements, the agent agreed to refund all but about $90 PP.

I put that down to credit card surcharges and exchange rate conversion - to me, by that point it was " a bird in the hand" ...

 

[frodo]

I've only searched a few dates but it could be that some award seats were released with EK416/417 being upgraded from a 777 to a 380:
Emirates goes all-A380 on SYD-DXB

1,171GBP (~2253AUD) in taxes out of LHR compared to 1,223EUR (~2020AUD) out of CDG.
Compare that to 312EUR in taxes for an economy award ticket from CDG-SYD, just complete price gouging.

As another comparison, my trip to Europe in April 2022 cost 468AUD one way and 365EUR return in taxes on EK...

 

[Pom-DownUnder]

I've only searched a few dates but it could be that some award seats were released with EK416/417 being upgraded from a 777 to a 380:
Emirates goes all-A380 on SYD-DXB

1,171GBP (~2253AUD) in taxes out of LHR compared to 1,223EUR (~2020AUD) out of CDG.
Compare that to 312EUR in taxes for an economy award ticket from CDG-SYD, just complete price gouging.

As another comparison, my trip to Europe in April 2022 cost 468AUD one way and 365EUR return in taxes on EK...

Yea this was my finding aswell, starting in EU is not a big saving, leaving from AMS or CDG was still 1000 euro

 

[aikman]

The global points collecting community needs to boycott Emirates award seats for as long as it takes them to reduce the surcharges. Wishful thinking I know.

 

[MrJetset]

EK F taxes to Europe are around $1,800 each one way. Return for two is this $7,200. They want extra revenue, even on awards, and are charging accordingly.

Only you can decide if you think it’s worth it. I pay it because I would rather use it QFF points to fly a better F product.

 

[Pom-DownUnder]

EK F taxes to Europe are around $1,800 each one way. Return for two is this $7,200. They want extra revenue, even on awards, and are charging accordingly.

Only you can decide if you think it’s worth it. I pay it because I would rather use it QFF points to fly a better F product.

dont see much else F for EU to AU unless i'm looking at the wrong routes

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Seeing more of EU to AU flights on EK for rewards but my WORD the carrier charges have hiked again i'm sure, 1,200 GBP one way in business???

You may want to look at Air Canada Aeroplan as they don't pass on carrier surcharge to customers and they look you book award flights with Emirates.

It's the UK AirpaxDuty, if you mean high taxes, in flying EK from the UK outwards.
They have to collect that, and remit it to the UK govt, so no hiding that one.
GBP200/Aud$373.

Agree with you that someone has to pay for the UK APD, but it's not always the consumer that has to pay for it. Certainly with award bookings the customer always pays (aside from points + pay bookings) but in the case of upgrades, it is the airline that gobbles up that cost.

-RooFlyer88

 

[Pom-DownUnder]

You may want to look at Air Canada Aeroplan as they don't pass on carrier surcharge to customers and they look you book award flights with Emirates.

Agree with you that someone has to pay for the UK APD, but it's not always the consumer that has to pay for it. Certainly with award bookings the customer always pays (aside from points + pay bookings) but in the case of upgrades, it is the airline that gobbles up that cost.

-RooFlyer88

Yea unfortunately i'm a bit of an infrequent flier, i chase points to basically ensure I dont have to do economy when I travel back to uk every year / every other year.

So i'm only reward seats, only QF points.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Yea unfortunately i'm a bit of an infrequent flier, i chase points to basically ensure I dont have to do economy when I travel back to uk every year / every other year.

So i'm only reward seats, only QF points.

You do realize you can buy Aeroplan points with a 80% bonus miles now?

Buy Air Canada Aeroplan Points With 80% Bonus (1.43 Cents Per Point)

Air Canada Aeroplan is offering an 80% bonus on purchased points. Is this an offer you should take advantage of?

onemileatatime.com

 

[MrJetset]

dont see much else F for EU to AU unless i'm looking at the wrong routes

The options are QF, BA, QR (If you can get more than one award if any) or EK with QFF points.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

dont see much else F for EU to AU unless i'm looking at the wrong routes

*cough*

 

[Pom-DownUnder]

*cough*
View attachment 344100

so, one is EK (see entire thread)
one is AA, you found ONE, congrats, cough ?

 

[CaptJCool]

Here’s a long explanation of why

Emirates explains carrier charges on reward flights

We catch up with the head of Skywards to find out why Emirates is charging such hefty fees when travellers book reward flights using points.

www.pointhacks.com.au

 

[celsioraus]

J rewards one way from Rome to Bangkok was 1100 On EK. Ended up with Royal
Jordanian for 350

 

[MelbFlyer]

This is why I haven't considered EK for any of my upcoming flights - which is a 5 leg rewards trip to Europe and back in mostly business (one leg in PE though (London to Singapore) ).

Not only can you not benefit from OWA capping, the tax for 1 leg of business on EK (on their abhorrent 2-3-2 layout on the 777s too!) costs already almost the entire trip I currently have (I paid 318k points plus $1.2k in taxes).

An example being just a short haul trip from London to Dubai in business - 61.2k points plus £533.86 which is >AUD$1k. No thanks.

On CI (which also cannot benefit from OWA capping either) in contrast, London to Taipei in business will cost 104.5k points but only £280.81 in taxes.

 

[NoName]

Glad to have managed to take a few trips on EK F booked just prior to these massive increases and what a fantastic experience. But it’s not even something Im considering now. Have ruled a line through EK for now.