It seems Emirates is joining the fuel surcharge party with awards.
Fuel surcharges will apply to all awards in the Skywards scheme from 31st March 2013.
You’ll be able to pay the Fuel Surcharge in either cash or more Skywards miles and will form part of the taxes and surcharges.
Emirates say:
Until now, the surcharges have been excluded from Emirates Skywards reward tickets.
Given the volatility of the fuel price, it is no longer possible for Emirates to absorb this cost on Skywards Reward tickets.”
Bottom line: Fuel is too expensive, and it’s time for customers to pony up.
Whislt there are a few programmes where fuel surcharges are minimised, the fact is a lot of them are more than happy to dump the charge onto the customer. At least Emirates gives you the option of paying with miles as well as cash – allowing you to judge which is better for you.
As much fun it is to shower on the A380 with the bling bling gold trim, the fuel surcharge alone makes it a lot less worth it compared to other A380 F experiences redeemable *without* YQ
And from an airline with the world’s second or third best access to cheap fuel. In this case, I don’t think it is about their direct fuel costs, but their desire to squeeze a few more bucks from those cross-line award seats. Given their “Home Airline” population, one suspects that >75% of their award seats originate with benefits from another airline. They are locked into current seat exchange prices and their only option to boost revenue is the fuel surcharge thing. I’d expect to see a lot more of this in the future. The real value of “Award” seats continues to fall and, on many routes they are nearly impossible to obtain. In short, Airline Miles and Award Seats is NOT the same, fun game that it once was. I suspect that most carriers regret having started the FF programs and are – over time – doing their best to get out of that promotional game when the market allows. I wonder… Who will be the first to drop their FF program entirely. Bets are on!