Emirates hikes up carrier charges on reward seats

[sudoer]

Where's your favourite departure ports in SEA?

Ex CGK, MNL, CMB, KUL and BKK have very competitive fares, especially on the ME3 or AY.

Ex SIN also has good fares to non-business hub destinations (e.g. not LHR/FRA/CDG) from time to time, with the added benefit of excellent lounges and good QF connections.

Google Flights is a great place to start searching as you can specify multiple origins and filter down on alliance. I don't know whether this link will work, but here's an example.

 

[jase05]

Where's your favourite departure ports in SEA?

I’m a massive CGK fan. Pre Covid there was always good availability on QF and a stack of really good and well priced hotels not far from the airport. Yes it’s not the best airport but lounges are decent enough.
MNL is another good one, absolutely love Manila and try to stay a extra day or two on the way back or head to one of the islands for a few days with a cheap domestic fare

 

[levelnine]

Ex CGK, MNL, CMB, KUL and BKK have very competitive fares, especially on the ME3 or AY.

Ex SIN also has good fares to non-business hub destinations (e.g. not LHR/FRA/CDG) from time to time, with the added benefit of excellent lounges and good QF connections.

Google Flights is a great place to start searching as you can specify multiple origins and filter down on alliance. I don't know whether this link will work, but here's an example.

I’m a massive CGK fan. Pre Covid there was always good availability on QF and a stack of really good and well priced hotels not far from the airport. Yes it’s not the best airport but lounges are decent enough.
MNL is another good one, absolutely love Manila and try to stay a extra day or two on the way back or head to one of the islands for a few days with a cheap domestic fare

Thanks to you both. Really helpful. Had never considered that possibility before.

 

[Duffa]

Even more reason to take the aforementioned advice. !!
That is more than a revenue fare from CDG to MEL return in Singapore J. And I earn about $350 worth of Kris points, plus status points.

 

[volandome]

Really I'm just here to vent a little; I'm surprised I don't see any existing thread with people complaining about it:

The cash component of J and F classic reward bookings have increased around threefold in the past week.

e.g. MEL -> FCO in F is now 225K points and ~AUD$1400. I paid $432 for the same 9 months ago.

Same with J; e.g. BCN -> BNE is 159K + €830.

Suddenly earning QFF point (which I've primarily used to redeem EK J & F cabins) are looking far less compelling :-(

 

[cinder]

So is that the tax portion or something else?

 

[RichardMEL]

To me fair to QF (which is difficult to do these days!) this is all EK and they are raising the surcharges.. the 2nd time in the last month it seems:

eg:

Emirates increases fuel surcharges on award tickets again - The Points Guy

Emirates has raised fuel surcharges on award tickets for the second time in a month. Here's what you need to know.

thepointsguy.com

 

[Seat0B]

Means it better to book rewards with actual one world carriers.

yes I totally agree - except I want to fly to Dubai to see Seat Son, and there are not many good options for using points any more.

 

[Matt_01]

To me fair to QF (which is difficult to do these days!) this is all EK and they are raising the surcharges.. the 2nd time in the last month it seems:

It looks like they have put up the fees twice in as many weeks. In the other thread I posted the EK reward seats MEL-SEA (F) at the time of booking the fees and taxes were AUD634, on 5 March it was AUD1308 for the same flights and today it would cost AUD1804. That is a $1200 price hike since Dec 21.

 

[RichardMEL]

It looks like they have put up the fees twice in as many weeks. I the other thread I posted the EK reward seats MEL-SEA (F) at the time of booking the fees and taxes were AUD634, on 5 March it was AUD1308 for the same flights and today it would cost AUD1804. That is a $1200 price hike since Dec 21.

It feels like some kind of irony that a carrier at the heart of an oil rich country is upping fuel surcharges so dynamically and rapidly (yes, fuel prices have gone mental due to the wa...special military operation, but they seem to be possibly taking just a bit of advantage imo.

I would expect in the medium term other carriers who do impose fuel fines to up theirs too which sadly makes some sort of sense in the current climate.

 

[Guvner]

Strange.. I'm struggling to recall the drop in fuel fines back in 2020.

 

[Mattg]

Strange.. I'm struggling to recall the drop in fuel fines back in 2020.

View attachment 273393

Emirates did actually drop its "carrier charges" around May 2020. Qantas then took the opportunity to increase the number of points required to book award seats on Emirates, using the justification that the fuel fines had been reduced.

I assume Qantas will now be reducing the number of points required back to 2020 levels?

 

[Mzungu]

Emirates did actually drop its "carrier charges" around May 2020. Qantas then took the opportunity to increase the number of points required to book award seats on Emirates, using the justification that the fuel fines had been reduced.

I assume Qantas will now be reducing the number of points required back to 2020 levels?

Good luck with that. Typical sneaky Q

 

[kangarooflyer88]

I think the key take away from all of this is when booking award flights be it on Emirate or Qantas, make sure the flights originate in Australia where the ACCC has put a ban on fuel surcharges for flights originating here. Yes I know it'll be annoying to have to originate out here especially if you are abroad, but the savings can be substantial!

-RooFlyer88

 

[serfty]

make sure the flights originate in Australia where the ACCC has put a ban on fuel surcharges for flights originating here

For all intents and purposes that article is incorrect regarding Australia.

The "Carrier Charges" on an economy Qantas Frequent Flyer redemption from MEL-SIN are $45.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

For all intents and purposes that article is incorrect regarding Australia.
The "Carrier Charges" on an economy Qantas Frequent Flyer redemption from MEL-SIN are $45.

Yeah... I don't even know how you could make that up? Not like it's just one sentence.. whole paragraphs and examples are completely fabricated.

 

[Mattg]

Yeah... I don't even know how you could make that up? Not like it's just one sentence.. whole paragraphs and examples are completely fabricated.

I don't think this article is fabricated, but the information seems well out of date.

It also uses Aeroplan for many of its examples, which wouldn't make since if the article was recent as Aeroplan no longer passes on fuel surcharges at all for flights on any partner airline.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I don't think this article is fabricated, but the information seems well out of date.

It also uses Aeroplan for many of its examples, which wouldn't make since if the article was recent as Aeroplan no longer passes on fuel surcharges at all for flights on any partner airline.

The article is saying that the Australian government was regulating fuel surcharges, either prohibiting them or limiting them. The article was written in 2018 and as we know fuel surcharges were very much in existence and very high back then. There was no government-imposed cap of $15.

In that context I don't even know how they came up with the text for those paragraphs?

 

[Mattg]

The article is saying that the Australian government was regulating fuel surcharges, either prohibiting them or limiting them. The article was written in 2018 and as we know fuel surcharges were very much in existence and very high back then. There was no government-imposed cap of $15.

In that context I don't even know how they came up with the text for those paragraphs?

Ah, I see. I must admit that I just skimmed the article but yeah, the stuff about Australia restricting fuel surcharges is utter nonsense.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Really I'm just here to vent a little; I'm surprised I don't see any existing thread with people complaining about it:

The cash component of J and F classic reward bookings have increased around threefold in the past week.

e.g. MEL -> FCO in F is now 225K points and ~AUD$1400. I paid $432 for the same 9 months ago.

Same with J; e.g. BCN -> BNE is 159K + €830.

Suddenly earning QFF point (which I've primarily used to redeem EK J & F cabins) are looking far less compelling :-(

I think this whole episode is demonstrating how little airline loyalty is and how important it is to be flexible around such factors as airlines and routing. I say this as a United Premier whose heart got crushed in late 2019 when the airline decided it wasn't enough for us International elites to fly tens of thousands of miles with them to earn status, we had to show them the money!

All of that being said, QF points are far from worthless, even for international travel. Yes, they may not be valuable for EK award flights anymore, but you know what? There are many other airlines that will happily get you to Europe from here including KLM, Air France, Qatar, Japan Airlines, British Airways, American Airlines, Alaskan and of course Qantas. And that's on top of the points upgrade options already available for those of us travelling on QF metal. In addition, I think this episode also demonstrates the value of holding points in multiple frequent flyer programs. Whilst QF has decent award coverage particularly with the partners it keeps, it's not as strong as Star Alliance programs like United or Air Canada which boast an even larger network, nor the EurAmerica reach of SkyTeam and the Delta-Air France-KLM (DAK) alliance.

-RooFlyer88