$85 Fee for Frequent Flier Ticket

[Lucky]

There seems to be no end to airlines finding fees for us to pay. Checking into a frequent flier ticket this morning, I saw that I would have to pay a fee of $85 for the privilege of using my miles on American Airlines. Delta long ago did away with the lower tier awards, effectively doubling the cost of a frequent flier ticket on that airline. Pundits worry that once United completes its merger with Continental that it too will double the cost of a free ticket.

It's even worse when trying to use miles to go to Europe. There they add fees in the hundreds of dollars.

American long ago started charging $250 for the privilege of using miles for a business class ticket to South America.

All of this might be fair if the airlines were upfront about it. Or if they implemented the fee schedule for miles accrued after the date the fees took effect. But as it is, they promised one thing and then did another once their programs turned out to work against them. Now that computers can calculate just how many seats they will actually fill, there is less need to "give" away unused seats on flights.

[Guest Anton]

Hey Lucky (and all others),

From what I know the ticket itself is still free. What you're paying is the airport tax.

Here's an example: I'll be flying from Europe to the U.S. early January and I'll have a stopover in JFK. That means I'll be paying airport taxes when I depart, airport taxes at JFK (one time for arriving, one time for flying on), and airport taxes when landing in Florida. I think the total I paid was someting like $250 .

That may sound unpleasant, but just compare that to the regular price of a one-way, which in this case was over $1000. A round trip early January had been over $2000. (And yes, both tickets had been coach.) No need to say that I'm very happy with the ticket I have.

The trick is that you use your airmiles ONLY when prices of regular tickets are sky-high. Then you'll get the best value out of your airmiles.

That suggests that you use your airmiles when there's only little time in between booking and flying, which in a sense is true. However, on each plane only a limited number of seats are available for passengers who spend airmiles to fly. When those seats are filled, they're filled. You may still be able to get the seat you want, but you'll have to check every day and you may only know that you're flying a few days in advance. So it's some sort of game that you're playing.

I hope you like the game!

Sincerely, Anton.

ps: This is not something I found out myself. I use a travel agency to do this for me. I pay them a booking-fee, but it pays itself back and more than that. LOL, they slaps me on the hand every time I thought I made a smart reservation.

[RA1]

The airlines are NOT playing fair and it will only get worse. Sorry to say.

Best regards,

RA1

[Guest Anton]

Hey RA1,

I loved your reply. I think it's not only the airlines. Lately I'm starting to say:

"The customer isn't really a customer any more. I think he has become some kind of prey and companies are trying to get as much money out of his pocket as possible."

Sincerely, Anton.

[Guest gcursor]

Sadly Anton it's that way in all walks of life now which is becoming worse and worse. Look at what Bank of America started doing to its customers. The corporations are becoming more upset because of the recession and they're not making the millions they did before so they're pulling out all the stops to get whatever they can.

Gcursor

Hey RA1,

I loved your reply. I think it's not only the airlines. Lately I'm starting to say:

"The customer isn't really a customer any more. I think he has become some kind of prey and companies are trying to get as much money out of his pocket as possible."

Sincerely, Anton.

[Lucky]

The $85 is specifically called a fee, not a tax.

[RA1]

Anyone that didn't "get it" before sure should have when the airlines temporarily were not collecting or paying FET aka airline ticket taxes and did NOT lower the price of the ticket. They just continued charging the same dollars and pocketed them.

Same opportunistic greed for many banks and others businesses. The golden rule at work. Those that have the gold, make the rules.

Best regards,

RA1

[JKane]

Hey Lucky (and all others),

From what I know the ticket itself is still free. What you're paying is the airport tax.

No, American can add a bunch of fees on top of the tax. They seem to come up more when you're not booking much in advance, or if you do anything that costs them a cent (like calling to make the reservation). They'll also probably charge you a bag fee at the airport, if you check a bag.

All that said, I'm still a fan. I got something like 150k miles last year just for opening two credit cards. There's a new one now that gets you pretty much all the gold perks plus access to the Admirals clubs, though the fee is pretty steep. I'm keeping an eye on it at Flyertalk, will wait 'till it has more than a 25k mile bonus for signing up.

[TotallyOz]

At one time I flew to Thailand about 5 times a year. I did that because Northwest would sell me an upgradable fare for 1800 USD and 30,000 miles. I thought this was great for a business class ticket.

They then jumped to 2200 and 2400 and 2800 and 3400. The last time I checked it was over 4,000 for the ticket and 90,000 miles to upgrade. I told the agent they were nuts and she said it was the trend and the way things were going to continue.

That is the main reason I started flying Thai Air as they have a Premium Economy that is perfectly comfortable for me.

I am still Platinum with Delta but I didn't make status this year and for the first time in 10 years, I'll be a Silver. The cost for miles for tickets to Thailand and Brazil (the two places I like to travel) got so expensive that I could not keep up with the miles needed. Last year, I did a fuck you Delta trip to Brazil and used my miles for the ticket. I knew that I would not be getting status this year as the prices are crazy.

I don't see this trend getting better. I have yet to find any airline that doesn't try to screw the customers in some way. When I came back to USA with Thai and I had an AA connecting flight that Thai airways made the ticket, they only wanted me to check bags to LA and then pay AA again. That would have cost me another 800 for the extra luggage. It is hard to try to find good deals and good airlines. I have just about decided that I'll the American companies are never going to get better and it is better for me to try to find something else like Emirates.

[Lucky]

Here is how the $85 breaks down:

AAdvantage Award Charge(s)

First passenger $75.00

AAdvantage Award Charge(s)

Taxes & Fees

Additional Taxes and Fees per passenger

$10.00

Tax and Award Charge Information

Flight Subtotal

25,000 miles

+ $85.00

Your Trip Cost:

25,000 miles

+ $85.00 USD

[Guest Anton]

Thanks Lucky, that's very interesting.

In my case American Airlines only specifies:

TAX/FEE/CHARGE $ 67.90

Air France / KLM is nicer to me, as they printed:

Toeslagen / Taxes : USD 265.44

That's why in my first post in this thread I wrote "From what I know ...". (I was referring to my situation only.)

But the main reason of my post was how, despite additional taxes or fees, we can still get the best value out of our airmiles.

Happy flying everybody!

Sincerely, Anton.

[Lucky]

Anton, are the tickets that you refer to frequent flier award tickets? because that's what I am speaking about. American charges a"redemption fee" for using your miles to get a ticket. I am also speaking of a domestic ticket, here in the US.

[Buddy2]

I am surprised at all the complaining, given that the actual airfares to Europe and South America are so high, and frequent flier ticket are free, except for some fees and taxes.

Last summer I flew to Prague on Lufthansa in June on frequent flier miles.

This summer I flew to Stockholm on Continental in August on frequent flier miles.

I saved over a thousand dollars on each trip. Yes, airlines have made frequent flier mile travel more more difficult and expensive. But, I have found that if I call the airines several times, I eventually get someone who will wave fees, or allow a stop over in a city that was originally just a plane change.

Lufthansa is especially willing to cooperate.

[Lucky]

Turns out that the fee of which I complain is waived if I book 21 days or more ahead.

AAdvantage Ticketing Service Charge

Ticketing Service Charge

(Waived for AAdvantage Executive Platinum® members)

Ticketing Service Charge applies when ticketing via Reservations, American Airlines Travel Center or Airport Ticket Office

AAdvantage Award Processing Charges

Ticketing less than 21 days prior to departure $75

(Waived for AAdvantage Executive Platinum®, AAdvantage Platinum® and

AAdvantage Gold® members using miles from their account)

[Guest Anton]

Hi Lucky,

Anton, are the tickets that you refer to frequent flier award tickets? because that's what I am speaking about. I am also speaking of a domestic ticket, here in the US.

I'm not familiar with all types of frequent flier tickets, but I think the answer is 'yes'.

I spent 30,000 airmiles to "pay" for the ticket and the title of the confirmation email I received said "Your Recent AAdvantage® Award Redemption". The email itself said "Your electronic award ticket(s) are being sent to the email address you provided during the booking process". I hope that that answers your question.

I guess that the "AAdvantage Award Processing Charges" were waived in my case, as I'm a Gold Member.

Oh, and the ticket was a flight to Europe, not a domestic flight.

Sincerely, Anton.

[Lucky]

I dealt with American again this week on an international flight. 35 minutes on the phone, but when the confirmation came in the mail I saw that my partner did not get ticketed as he should have. So another 22 minutes on the phone today. They charged me a $25 processing fee on his ticket, but the other day they did not charge that for my ticket. I didn't say a word. They had already charged me $175 to get the miles from my canceled trip reinstated to my account. You know that required nothing more than a computer click.

So, for my 57 minutes to get the ticketing done, do I get any reward? No, I just pay them $200 for the privilege of using my miles. At least we don't have middle seats to Rio.

[Lucky]

I have enough miles to fly Business or first to London. Yet AA wants "up to $775" in fees to go along with the miles.

[TampaYankee]

I have enough miles to fly Business or first to London. Yet AA wants "up to $775" in fees to go along with the miles.

Seems like FF miles are no longer what they ued to be. Guess there are just good for a discount now.

[Guest EXPAT]

Isn't that because of all the international airport taxes now?

[Guest hitoallusa]

You are such a nice bf to handle flights for your bf . I guess they need as much revenue as possible after they went bankrupt.

I dealt with American again this week on an international flight. 35 minutes on the phone, but when the confirmation came in the mail I saw that my partner did not get ticketed as he should have. So another 22 minutes on the phone today. They charged me a $25 processing fee on his ticket, but the other day they did not charge that for my ticket. I didn't say a word. They had already charged me $175 to get the miles from my canceled trip reinstated to my account. You know that required nothing more than a computer click.

So, for my 57 minutes to get the ticketing done, do I get any reward? No, I just pay them $200 for the privilege of using my miles. At least we don't have middle seats to Rio.

[AdamSmith]

American must have an Executive Vice President of How to Suck Shit in Every Possible Way. With a sub-VP dedicated to fucking with the mileage program. Couple weeks ago I redeemed some miles to buy what would have been a $179 or $209 one-way ticket. Well, just as Lucky found last year, turns out that since it was within 21 days of the flight, there was a $75 fee for "expedited processing" of the mileage redemption.

Purest piratical horseshit. As Lucky said, it is the same click of a button either way. Used to involve a rigamarole of sending in for paper redemption chits etc., but today it can be all-digital, whether near- or longer-term purchase.

Hmmmph!

[JKane]

Yeah, I think you're better off just buying (and getting miles for) anything up to the $200 range.

LA to DFW was about $99, so bought it. DFW to fucking Biloxi was around $400, makes the $100 I paid in fees for two tickets seem pretty small...

[RA1]

Actually all this and more was predicted when the airlines were de-regulated more than 30 years ago. Among the things that I heard bandied about was that the flag carriers would combine and there would only be 3-4 after several years. Today we have UA, DL, AA and US Air, sort of. There have been many, many "new" carriers to come and go but no new flag carriers. Another thing I heard repeatedly was that the airlines would regret in a major way having all those contingent liabilities aka FF miles and would go to great lengths to get rid of them or minimize their cost.

Of course, "service" has fallen off as ticket prices have gone down (some of the time) and planes are now much fuller than they ever were before de-regulation. Very few meals and charges for many things.

You can think I am seeing all this after the fact but I can assure you that I heard all this in the early 1980's and, to some extent, dismissed the predictions. However, virtually all have come true and, unfortunately, I think the airlines, partly because of the price of fuel, are just "warming up". They will have to increase fees, ticket prices, whatever or go under.

While I have a lot of friends who are airline pilots, I hate riding the airlines and go out of my way to avoid them. The TSA being perhaps 50% of the problem.

Best regards,

RA1