New "Airline Fuel fee" on some Qatar redemptions via Velocity

[Joolz49]

Something is definitely going on with fuel surcharges, especially for flights inbound to Australia.

Fees for a J flight from BNE to LHR / WAW and few others are about $1200 now, which is $500 more than before, not great but not a total deal breaker. But the same flight coming back to AUS now includes fees between $2100-$2500 depending on the departure airport.

Could part of that fee LHR-BNE be attributed to the new tax for leaving UK? Or is that a separate rip-off?

 

[PERLHR]

Not muc

Use Velocity to get to DPS and purchase a cash fare from there!

Not much good ex PER! Pah...and not long after QR go twice daily....well with one being a VA flight number. Really wish VA had not screwed up their weak effort to start Bali ex PER .

 

[ozstamps]

Thank goodness Velocity has SO many quality overseas partners to choose from, none of this is an issue to those still madly chasing miles!

You can't use Virgin Miles for Business or First Class Awards on Singapore Airlines or United Airlines at ANY time, so no insane carrier tax implications to worry about. As there are NO tickets obtainable.

You CAN use Virgin miles to fly Business Class to tourist must-go places like Vanautu or Tonga I believe. In an upright seat 737! Zero lounges access of course. You want award seats AND lounges????!

The race to bottom quickens pace.

What a crock.

 

[RooFlyer]

none of this is an issue to those still madly chasing miles!

Anyone “madly chasing Miles“ I think is a mug. You’ll pay more for those miles and the opportunities to use them are getting narrower and narrower.

 

[ozstamps]

No kidding.

Chasing miles AND status on Velocity is even dumber these days.

Paying $5,000 a year to get lounge access basically, under the new devaluations of SC.

 

[RooFlyer]

Chasing miles AND status on Velocity is even dumber these days.

To which I would add, and have for a long time : ‘chasing’ status on any airline is a mug’s game.

If you fly enough, you’ll earn the status. If you can Status Match, so much the better.

 

[ozstamps]

Well SOME Status is well worth chasing.

I got Lifetime Star Alliance 20 years back and it is enormously handy. Whilst getting it, had top tier on UA, and got upgraded free up front, on EVERY flight no matter where to, for near 2 million miles.

Then it was way cheaper to get with far less rules, and no revenue cap.

Despite having barely spent a dime on it since, it gets me AND partner who also got automatic Star Sold Status as a free bonus, instant Star lounge access globally, extra baggage, priority boarding etc.

Also applies on Virgin now, as long as UA put up with such a lame partner! Cannot see what is in it for UA at all, seeing they fly their own metal to USA. Even from ADELAIDE to USA now, for goodness sakes.

Velocity 'forever' status does not equate even remotely, to Star Alliance Lifetime Gold Status!

United Elite Members CAN access a ton of Biz award seats on UA, and Velocity members see zero. THAT is a status benefit.

 

[clifford]

Well SOME Status is well worth chasing.

I got Lifetime Star Alliance 20 years back and it is enormously handy. Whilst getting it, had top tier on UA, and got upgraded free up front, on EVERY flight no matter where to, for near 2 million miles.

Then it was way cheaper to get with far less rules, and no revenue cap.

Despite having barely spent a dime on it since, it gets me AND partner who also got automatic Star Sold Status as a free bonus, instant Star lounge access globally, extra baggage, priority boarding etc.

Also applies on Virgin now, as long as UA put up with such a lame partner! Cannot see what is in it for UA at all, seeing they fly their own metal to USA. Even from ADELAIDE to USA now, for goodness sakes.

Velocity 'forever' status does not equate even remotely, to Star Alliance Lifetime Gold Status!

Well, Glen. as a MP 2MM I do think your assertion that you got upgraded on every flight might be a little contentious, but if that happened, good for you. But I do agree than the new American styled Velocity might hit a few headwinds in Australia.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Well, Glen. as a MP 2MM I do think your assertion that you got upgraded on every flight might be a little contentious, but if that happened, good for you. But I do agree than the new American styled Velocity might hit a few headwinds in Australia.

That may have been fairly accurate years ago… most of the US majors are now selling the bulk of their premium cabins, even for small cash amounts. I think Delta has gone from something like 16% sales in First class domestic to now over 90%. Those complimentary upgrades are getting much harder now.

 

[ozstamps]

Trust me, using United 1K 'Systemwide' fully confirmable in advance upgrade certificates, it happened on all UA flights. There was near always NC or NF inventory, and one could plan trips easily in advance to use it.

Flew SYD-USA-Latin America round trips around 20 times for starters. About 600,000 real BIS miles. And to Europe near the same kind of number of times, via the USA. Similar miles there.

The NETT price coach tickets to South America or Europe generally were about $A1,500 return. (To Brazil and Argentina most times were LESS than the ticket to Washington!) Often closer to $A1,000 RT on sales or promos. London was under $1,000 for a while via the USA. The pure miles one earned, was worth near that, on 30,000 mile trips, to which the elite bonus miles were added!

There were ZERO, repeat ZERO upselling of upgrades at gates or online, in those days. Like SQ now, they'd oddly prefer to see the Biz or F cabin leave half full, than to sell upgrades. No idea why, but that was reality.

*ONE* Systemwide let you fly SYD-LAX/SFO-IAD or MIA or NYC - and then the ~10 hours to EZE/SCL/MVD/GIG/GRU/LHR/FRA/AMS/BRU/CDG, even Russia etc, upgraded in advance on all legs. ~30 hours of flights per Cert. All 1Ks got at least 6 x SWU Certs a year.

As long as no single 'stopover' was more than 24 hours, all was good. Hit SFO, and the nearest hotel, have a relax for 23 hours, and onwards to next city.

All UA USA domestic/Canada/Mexico flights were again also fully upgradable in advance using
'500 miler' certs that were more or less unlimited to Elites, and also full transferrable as 'bearer bonds'. 2000 mile transcons = 4 x '500 milers' etc.

Those were the days. Certs then were PAPER, fully transferrable - heavily traded on FT etc, and 'Bearer Bonds' essentially. UA agents often forgot to collect them. Partner airline agents almost NEVER collected them.

I'd often start the flight in say MEL or ADL on partner Ansett. Who'd never heard of a SWU .. all they could see in the system were fully confirmed upgraded flights, with seats already allocated, and would cheerfully issue boarding passes to Sydney and then the USA. SWU's were meant to collected at FIRST flight of an itinerary, otherwise no-one in UA had a clue after that point if they had not been.

Those were certainly the days.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Heavens! I remember those days! Seems like a lifetime ago!

 

[PERLHR]

Trust me, using United 1K 'Systemwide' fully confirmable in advance upgrade certificates, it happened on all UA flights. There was near always NC or NF inventory, and one could plan trips easily in advance to use it.

Flew SYD-USA-Latin America round trips around 20 times for starters. About 600,000 real BIS miles. And to Europe near the same kind of number of times, via the USA. Similar miles there.

The NETT price coach tickets to South America or Europe generally were about $A1,500 return. (To Brazil and Argentina most times were LESS than the ticket to Washington!) Often closer to $A1,000 RT on sales or promos. London was under $1,000 for a while via the USA. The pure miles one earned, was worth near that, on 30,000 mile trips, to which the elite bonus miles were added!

There were ZERO, repeat ZERO upselling of upgrades at gates or online, in those days. Like SQ now, they'd oddly prefer to see the Biz or F cabin leave half full, than to sell upgrades. No idea why, but that was reality.

*ONE* Systemwide let you fly SYD-LAX/SFO-IAD or MIA or NYC - and then the ~10 hours to EZE/SCL/MVD/GIG/GRU/LHR/FRA/AMS/BRU/CDG, even Russia etc, upgraded in advance on all legs. ~30 hours of flights per Cert. All 1Ks got at least 6 x SWU Certs a year.

As long as no single 'stopover' was more than 24 hours, all was good. Hit SFO, and the nearest hotel, have a relax for 23 hours, and onwards to next city.

All UA USA domestic/Canada/Mexico flights were again also fully upgradable in advance using
'500 miler' certs that were more or less unlimited to Elites, and also full transferrable as 'bearer bonds'. 2000 mile transcons = 4 x '500 milers' etc.

Those were the days. Certs then were PAPER, fully transferrable - heavily traded on FT etc, and 'Bearer Bonds' essentially. UA agents often forgot to collect them. Partner airline agents almost NEVER collected them.

I'd often start the flight in say MEL or ADL on partner Ansett. Who'd never heard of a SWU .. all they could see in the system were fully confirmed upgraded flights, with seats already allocated, and would cheerfully issue boarding passes to Sydney and then the USA. SWU's were meant to collected at FIRST flight of an itinerary, otherwise no-one in UA had a clue after that point if they had not been.

Those were certainly the days.

I actually love your posts.....they kinda make me look at reality and how point chasing these days is well a "mugs game'. !

 

[ozstamps]

The Golden Days have all been nixed by the Beancounters sadly.

$2,300 in TAXES plus a gazillion miles, to book a 'FREE' Qatar redemption to London is insane.

We flew Concorde both ways using Qantas points obtained from Starwood/Sheraton, awarded for buying $1000 or so of 'Inside Flyer' subs - one of the great FF deals of all time. Lots of folks here did that.

Many of us got MILLIONS of free miles here -

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/klm-flying-dutchman/63342-comps-qualiflyers-other-ff-progs-klm-including-mileage-4.html

Top level elites signed up for KLM/Air France, and these guys dumbly MATCHED your FF account balance with their miles. AND gave you Flying Blue Platinum status for years as well.

THEN they merged with NorthWest in the USA later on and multiplied all those miles by 1.5 or something and then gave you Platinum Northwest for years as well! AS I recall, I ended up with 1.8 MILLION free miles.

We flew First Class from here in 747s, to Europe to Libya, Tunisia, Suriname in South America, Alaska a few times, and South Africa. All for a pittance in taxes.

Still have a mantelpiece covered in those cool KLM porcelain Delft houses filled with BOLS gin they gave each Business Class long haul passenger! The Libya ones by their law, was booze free and stickered thus!