Fuel Surcharges

Dear Annabelle,

I am trying to clean up drafts that I wrote a while ago and this is one of them.  Really just some compiled info I had found at the time....

Having a good understanding of fuel surcharges seems to be key to acquiring award travel that is close to free as opposed to still hundreds of dollars.  Especially at this point in time when I am trying to decide who to collect points with it seems a good time to set up a strategy based on who does not have fuel surcharges.

Delta SkyMiles

Here is a chart indicating which partner airlines you pay fuel surcharges on if you book with SkyMiles. Along with the chart it highlights the related point that "Delta SkyMiles imposes fuel surcharges for all award tickets originating in Europe. So regardless of which airline you fly, you will pay fuel surcharges when you book a SkyMiles award originating in Europe." This first chart seems to differ from the chart here that indicates that all SkyTeam charges and passes on fuel surcharges. This post outlines a way to get around the fuel surcharges for flights from Europe.  This post seems to confirm the first chart with a mix of charging and not charging fuel surcharges.  Good reminder to always double check my facts in this points world before I settle on a strategy.

The last post from 2012 summarized the following:

• "There are four surcharge-free options to Europe: Delta, KLM, Air France, and Alitalia.
• There are two surcharge-free options to Asia: Delta and Korean.
• There are three surcharge-free options to the Americas: Delta, Aeromexico, and Aerolineas Argentinas.
• There are two surcharge-free options to Australia: Delta and Virgin Australia.
• Delta has pretty awful availability to all those places except on its New York to London route.
  Virgin Australia, Korean, and the European partners have pretty good availability among surcharge-free airlines." 

Travel is Free Advice

Travel is Free outlines how great ANA is but that they pass on all fuel surcharges so you need to look for the airlines that don't have them. He also lists the "Star Alliance airlines without fuel surcharges:

• Avianca 
• Air New Zealand 
• TACA 
• United within the Americas 
• Air Canada within the Americas" 

And says how "There are other airlines where the fuel surcharges would be minor… but I don’t get why you would even bother. Why not collect and use United or AA miles for a trip to Europe, Africa or Asia and then us ANA to South America, Central America, and the Caribbean? That’s what I’d recommend."

Other Links

These Posts on TPG give an overview of the fuel surcharges for Aeroplan and ANA. And here is talk about how Air France Blue has capped their fuel surcharges.

Hugs, Jen