Tax half the cost of the ticket, normal ?

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Hi,

I just booked three award bookings ticket for the family yesterday from qantas and I have been disgusted by the tax cost.

We paid about $1300 for three people + 108000 qantas miles.

When I last checked it was $250 so I was very surprised by the fee.

The trip was from Canberra to Noumea.

The real ticket cost double that but we didn't expect the tax to cost so much. We have to take the trip to visit family and with limited funds at the moment we had no choice but to take the ticket.

Is that normal? I was thinking of starting to gather a lot of points but if the cost of the tax is half the plane ticket I might rethink about it...
 
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Yes, It is fairly normal. QF are fairly well renown for having high award fare surcharges.
You get better value out of award fares in the premium cabins, as economy is fairly poor in redemption value.
 
As mannej says, that's perfectly normal with Qantas. You are talking about 'additional charges', and yes, Qantas charge these to the max (they have even started charging surcharges for particular flight departure times!) - but not all airlines do.

Hang around AFF - you'll learn for instance that Economy award tickets are generally regarded as not being a good use of points, due to exactly this issue - often you might find that you can buy an international economy ticket (and earn points etc) for not much more than the taxes and surcharges of an award ticket.
 
As mannej says, that's perfectly normal with Qantas. You are talking about 'additional charges', and yes, Qantas charge these to the max (they have even started charging surcharges for particular flight departure times!) - but not all airlines do.

Hang around AFF - you'll learn for instance that Economy award tickets are generally regarded as not being a good use of points, due to exactly this issue - often you might find that you can buy an international economy ticket (and earn points etc) for not much more than the taxes and surcharges of an award ticket.

Yep. In many instances I've seen with friends/colleagues it would have been far cheaper to buy a sale fare (which would have still earned some points), and redeem the points for gift cards or, of course, a fancy toaster. At least the OP redeemed for QF and not JQ...
 
Additional fees on an award ticket are not consistent with additional fees on a paid ticket. It's a disgraceful punch in the nads but that is normal for Qantas, and as others have pointed out, are a main reason for not burning points on QF award flights. You are wise to consider where to build your points.
 
I think the term 'award seat' is perhaps getting a little misleading... it is more a 'co-pay' reduction these days.

i don't understand why we have to pay the high fuel surcharges... already the cost to obtain the points has increased by these fuel surcharges, then they 'double up' when you go to redeem.
 
You were lucky taexs and surcharges were only half the cost of the airfare.

SYD-SIN return flights with the last sale were ~$650. Taxes and surcharges are ~$470 or ~72% of the cost of the airfare!
 
You were lucky taexs and surcharges were only half the cost of the airfare.

SYD-SIN return flights with the last sale were ~$650. Taxes and surcharges are ~$470 or ~72% of the cost of the airfare!

I can recall some 15 years ago when I used to fly SIN/MNL/SIN ad hoc on SQ award tickets, only IIRC paying departure tax.. Sub ~ SGD20 for redemption tickets.
The bygone days when award/redemption availability were (almost- mostly) available at a low cost & airlines duly consistently appreciated their loyal customers.
Evidently- What a differing environment in 2014.
 
Yes, ditto for all above, this is fairly normal, which is why many are starting to look elsewhere!
 
I can recall some 15 years ago when I used to fly SIN/MNL/SIN ad hoc on SQ award tickets, only IIRC paying departure tax.. Sub ~ SGD20 for redemption tickets.
The bygone days when award/redemption availability were (almost- mostly) available at a low cost & airlines duly consistently appreciated their loyal customers.
Evidently- What a differing environment in 2014.
Everyone can afford to travel now. There are many ways to earn miles/points. Wouldn't have been so easy 15 years ago.

Still does not make fuel surcharges on award tickets right. Far from it.
 
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