Fuel Surcharges

I have been hearing some scary stories of fuel surcharges being added to people's charge cards after they bought tickets. This charge wasnt quoted with the price of the ticket, just added.

One person booked a group of people to fly from the US to England and $300 per ticket was added to the price of the ticket on thier visa card. They called the attorney for the particular airline and she said "we are just doing it".

Doesnt seem right that any extra charges shouldnt be part of the price of the ticket so you can compare.

talkamotta said:

I have been hearing some scary stories of fuel surcharges being added to people's charge cards after they bought tickets. This charge wasnt quoted with the price of the ticket, just added.

One person booked a group

Click to expand...

Group travel may be part of the reason. Were the tickets paid for and ticketed in advance? Or was a down payment made on the tickets and payment in full followed later when all the names were given to the group desk?

I can tell you last year my ski club booked a group I led to Keystone. We booked our group through a travel agency that sets up trips for ski clubs. We pay a down payment for the air and don't "ticket" until we have all the travelers or within 60 days whichever is first.

In October I was notified by our agent that United was going to add a fuel charge for all seats not ticketd in the next 72 hours. Luckily I sold my trip out and was able to give her all our travelers names and we were ticketed before the surcharge went into effect. Our other trips that were not yet sold out all had the surcharge added because they were not fully sold or ready to ticket.

I don't think they can charge if the seat has been paid in full and it has been ticketed.

Fuel surcharges are a big scam among the airlines. Fuel is not an extra, but a necessity to provide the basic service of flying you from point A to point B. The worst practictioners of this con game are the European legacy carriers and the worst among US airlines is Delta.

Even though this is a fee that is really part of the fare, the really dishonest part of the scam is that they insert it on the tax line, even though is goes straight to the airline and not a third party like the government or an airport authority. This screws consumers in two ways. If you have an award ticket, it means you pay part of the fare even though it is supposedly a ''free'' ticket. If it is a paid ticket, then it makes price comparisions misleading and cumbersome. Some airlines, notably BA, have a massive fuel surcharge, so that their fare looks deceptively small, while the total cost including the fuel surcharge may ofter be more than airlines with fares that look higher with the surcharge.

Fuel surcharges are nothing but a scam on passengers, and there is a real need for consumer protection legislation to require airlines to place these in the ''fare'' line rather than the ''tax'' line, as they are not tax at all and it is simply dishonest to place them there.

I don't know about other airlines, but on UA, you do not pay the YQ fuel surcharge on award tickets.

I was looking at fares between Maui and London to see what I could find, using itasoftware.com, and it gives you the fare breakdown. One of the cheapest fares I could find on UA was around $1,000. The fare breakdown showed that the actual fare was around $300 in each direction, but the fuel surcharge was around $250, with taxes making up the rest. Here's an example:


-David

We bought 2 tickets for SLC-CUN in 1/25/2008 for travel in 11/1/2008 on Aeromexico. We will be flying on a Delta nonstop flight.

Charges are Fares and Surcharges $724
Taxes and Regulatory surcharges $192.24

Total $916.24
It was a good fare and I am lucky to get it. I know the total charges. I could compare.

The same flight through Aeromexico is now:
Fare Breakdown

Passenger Type No. of Passengers Fare and Surcharges Taxes Total
Adult (ADT) 2 $1,696.00 USD $415.52 USD $2,111.52 USD
Totals $1,696.00 USD $415.52 USD $2,111.52 USD


Surcharges reflect the impact on our costs due to fluctuations in turbosine price.

Now this is Delta's price for the same exact flight.

Subtotal per Passenger: (USD)

Price per passenger:
$698.80 (USD)
Taxes/Fees: $65.60 (USD)
Subtotal per Passenger: $764.40 (USD)
Total for all passengers (2): $1,528.80 (USD)

No where in Delta pricing does it say anything about surcharges. Im still happy because I got the lowest of all (after all its the bottom line we care about). So how do airlines get away with out breaking down the charges. Or in this case is Delta doing it correctly? Would you be worried thinking that they might add them on as they did my friend? after the ticket is booked.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. This particular person works for the state government in consumer affairs.
I just want all the charges upfront so I can compare.

Delta is phasing in its fuel surcharges on award tickets, and is the only US airline doing so. Most European majors hit you with that already.

Delta is now imposing these charges on tickets, either entirely on Delta metal or on partners for flights leaving some European markets, including its major gateway, France. They intend to expand this very shortly to all of Europe, and then ulitmately to their entire system. Right now it only applies to flying from Europe, but they intend to also impose it on trans-Atlantic flights from the US.

A good example is to look up flights between Paris and New York. For the very same dates and city pairs, you will find a normal tax and fee amount if your origin is New York, but a massive tax and fee amount if your origin is Paris. The difference is the fraudulent ''fuel surcharge''

A couple of months ago, I checked on award tickets from Bucharest to the US with both DL and NW. DL wanted well over US$300 in taxes and ''fees'' while NW only asked a bit less than US$100. Needless to say, I booked on NW. The difference was that DL was fraudulently imposing a ''fuel surcharge'' as a tax.

My advice is that if you are flying those markets, or directions where DL has not yet imposed this rip-off fee, then burn your DL miles while you can.

I don't think you used the word "fraudulently" enough in your post.

-David