Taxes/surcharges on a reward flight (inspired by dmg24)

blindman

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

By the looks of it, The American Airline AAdvantage card is a real good'un then.
After only 4 transatlantic flights** (or 3 if you manipulate it nicely) you get one for free and just pay the £60 tax/surcharge.

I assume you mean that 3 flights accumuates enough miles for the 40,000 needed to get a "free" flight.

IIRC AA have a special discount regarding UK taxes etc which makes their tax fee lower than most carriers.

Murphy_The_Cat

blindman wrote: »

I assume you mean that 3 flights accumuates enough miles for the 40,000 needed to get a "free" flight.

IIRC AA have a special discount regarding UK taxes etc which makes their tax fee lower than most carriers.

Yep, thats what I meant.
Whats the 'special discount' that you are talking about, because I like it ?
Is it because the tickets aren't bought in/via the UK/eu ?

gardner1

old_motters wrote: »

The last time I booked an airmiles ticket 4 years it cost me £40 for a US roundtrip ticket.

I looked to do the same earlier this year, it was going to cost £240 to £260 in charges and fees. The deepest discount economy fare was £330 so we bought that instead.

It makes using airmiles for economy airfares ex-UK almost pointless. I will be using mine for upgrading YBM fare class tickets to business or business class award outright. Once I've burned my miles I'm going to convert new miles into hotel points, probably Marriott.

with airmiles flights you now have three options
full miles and no taxes
half miles and taxes+charges
quater miles and taxes+charges

blindman

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

Yep, thats what I meant.
Whats the 'special discount' that you are talking about, because I like it ?
Is it because the tickets aren't bought in/via the UK/eu ?

I read it somewhere on Flyertalk.

Anyhow if you really are bored interested then have a play around with this software online ITA

Input a flight and then look at the breakdown of the resulting fares.
For an award ticket you can ignore the top two Fare amounts and see what "taxes and fees" you will have to pay.
I puit in a trip LHR-LAX and found that with AA they do not load any fuel taxes so their fees are $55 + £61 UK tax (BTW this will increase by £30 in NOV 09 :eek:
so you pay around £90 for an award ticket.

BA on the other hand add £137 for fuel (BA YQ surcharge) so you would pay this + taxes for the "free" flight.

Notice that both BA and AA total fares are the same price at £434.00

I've just redeemed 300,000 bmi miles (obtained mostly free through Mysteryshopping and heavy use of the 'old' MBNA card) to fly First and business class to New Zealand over Xmas and New Year.
This will include a stop off in Tokyo on the way out and we'll be in Sydney for the New Years Eve Fireworks:j

Total taxes etc were £400 each but the actual fare for this trip is around £14,000 each :D
Cheapest economy fare is around £800 (and doesn't include my stopovers.)

It's taken two years to build up the miles
So if you work it right you can get a damn good trip, though it's not free.
We've still go 60K AA and 55 Virgin miles so will be looking at 2010 for another redemption.
I'll be applying for the Citi card (again ) to earn some more miles.

Only problem I have with the AA miles is that you have to go via USA (IIRC) and I've been to most of if!

sturll

A great tip is that if you are booking a reward flight one way, always book it coming back.

The taxes from most other countries on the globe are far cheaper than those to leave the UK.

old_motters

gardner1 wrote: »

with airmiles flights you now have three options
full miles and no taxes
half miles and taxes+charges
quater miles and taxes+charges

I should have been more specific... I have 97k Delta Skymiles.

old_motters

blindman wrote: »

I just redeemed 300,000 bmi miles (obtained mostly free through Mysteryshopping and heavy use of the 'old' MBNA card) to fly First and business class to New Zealand over Xmas and New Year.
This will include a stop off in Tokyo on the way out and we'll be in Sydney for the New Years Eve Fireworks:j

Awesome trip!! BMI Diamond Club is/was actually a very good programme along with the BMI credit card. I can't imagine it will be quite so generous now that Lufthansa owns the show.

nico26

I paid 360 euros to fly First Class with AF from Singapore to Edinburgh v Paris last year.
Well worth the money.As we had 80k of luggage coming back home after 6 months..It would have cost us that in luggage excess alone. Only thing was a night flight but had fantastic feather bedding and pillows and of course your pyjamas.. Woke up all refreshed in time for brekkie and our connecting flight.God the only way to travel if you could afford it.

dmg24

nico26 wrote: »

I paid 360 euros to fly First Class with AF from Singapore to Edinburgh v Paris last year.
Well worth the money.As we had 80k of luggage coming back home after 6 months..It would have cost us that in luggage excess alone. Only thing was a night flight but had fantastic feather bedding and pillows and of course your pyjamas.. Woke up all refreshed in time for brekkie and our connecting flight.God the only way to travel if you could afford it.

Glad you enjoyed it - I know lots of people criticise AF's First product, but I am sure it will be better than anything I have experienced before ... I just love the fact that I am guaranteed to have nobody anywhere near me!

old_motters

nico26 wrote: »

I paid 360 euros to fly First Class with AF from Singapore to Edinburgh v Paris last year.
Well worth the money.As we had 80k of luggage coming back home after 6 months..It would have cost us that in luggage excess alone. Only thing was a night flight but had fantastic feather bedding and pillows and of course your pyjamas.. Woke up all refreshed in time for brekkie and our connecting flight.God the only way to travel if you could afford it.

Was that an award ticket or a paid upgrade? Some/most airlines will sell upgrades at check in. With so few business travellers turning left there have to be some bargains to be had!