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  • #1

    Redemption Taxes & Surcharges for Partner Awards

    For the first time I wanted to use my Kris Flyer Miles to make a partner redemption booking on Virgin Atlantic from London to Barbados for next July. The booking process was pretty painless - I just called KF and they did the booking. They said they would get back to me when the booking was confirmed by Virgin. After a few days of waiting I contacted them to be told the booking was confirmed.

    I had checked the online prices of Virgin before deciding it was worth to use the 50,000 miles required and hence decided to proceed. I could also see that online Virgin's fare breakdown calculated GBP 217 for Taxes, Surcharges, Airline charges etc. A detailed breakdown is available online from their website.

    Therefore I was surprised when KF told me the taxes and surcharges would be S$840 (which is about GBP 400). Obviously I queried this and the very friendly lady told me she would check with her supervisor. Shortly afterwards I received a call back to tell me the charges were correct and that taxes and surcharges would be different if booked with the airline direct.

    As these taxes and surcharges are clearly spelled out, I wonder how there can be such a huge difference in the cost between KF and Virgin.

    As the Virgin all in on line fare is only GBP 700 it seems a waste to use 50,000 miles to save GBP 300, so I will likely not bother with the redemption. However, I can't help but feel SQ is trying to cheat me.

    Any insights from anyone ?

    Cheers
    Neil
    Tags: expensive redemption, fuel surcharges
  • #2
    I would ask for a breakdown of how that $840 was derived. That way, you could verify; at least some of it.

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    • #3
      Similar to what you faced, I recently redeemed Delta economy tickets to Tokyo (SIN-NRT-SIN) for Dec 2010 and besides miles, taxes charged was SGD69.

      On SQ, it would be miles + taxes of SGD280 (breakdown being SGD69 for airport + SGD211 for "carrier surcharges") per person !

      The 400%+ higher taxes for SQ redemptions versus Delta seems solely attributed to "carrier surcharges".

      I would normally not want to redeem Y on SQ as it's not that much savings after all the surcharges ... better to redeem J or F on SQ in terms of more bang for buck.

      Comment

      • #4
        Don't forget the recently increased (and absolutely disgraceful) UK APD. Due to the stupid way the system works you pay BGI is in the same charge band as LAX/SFO/YVR etc.

        I also have to say that I find mileage redemptions in Y a poor use of miles these days with all the extras you get clobbered with.

        Comment

        • #5
          As an update, SQ called me yesterday and advised they had made a mistake. Taxes and surcharges were now SGD 520.15 instead of SGD 840. This comes closer to the Virgin taxes of GBP 217 with a GBP 30 difference.

          I booked the redemption as a result.

          Luckily I had done my homework otherwise I might just have paid the higher amount with probably no chance of getting the difference back later.

          It just surprised me that SQ could deal with taxes and surcharges in such an aribitrary way. Naively I thought that their systems would calculate everything for them, but when speaking to them it seemed that they had to do it manually.

          Anyway, thanks for all your feedback.
          Neil

          Comment

          • #6
            Originally posted by barbene View Post
            As an update, SQ called me yesterday and advised they had made a mistake. Taxes and surcharges were now SGD 520.15 instead of SGD 840. This comes closer to the Virgin taxes of GBP 217 with a GBP 30 difference.

            I booked the redemption as a result.

            Luckily I had done my homework otherwise I might just have paid the higher amount with probably no chance of getting the difference back later.

            It just surprised me that SQ could deal with taxes and surcharges in such an aribitrary way. Naively I thought that their systems would calculate everything for them, but when speaking to them it seemed that they had to do it manually.

            Anyway, thanks for all your feedback.
            Neil
            Did they share how do they calculate partner airline surcharges? I was contemplating a few redemptions for J to Europe next year, and it would be good to know...
            Life's A Bitch,
            Love It

            If GOD created me for only 1 reason. That reason would be to the love of my wife. If there was any other reasons involved, that would be for the love of Singapore Airlines

            Flown with me? - http://my.flightmemory.com/inix

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            • #7
              Fuel surcharges now make 95% of Y ticket

              Fuel surcharges have in some cases reached 50% of the total cost of a Y ticket.
              Our frequent flyer miles loose a lot of value and we are being made to pay again for ticket which in fact should be almost free.
              What stops SQ to "package" 95% of the ticket cost into fuel charges ?
              How can we, the most loyal and the most profitable customers try to stop this trend and restore the value of our expensively purchased frerquent flyer miles.
              I've been talking to them, writing to them, people posted recently their comments in Forum but they show untouchable arrogance. How to tackle this issue. Anyone has an idea. Petition - Face Book - Separate internet website - www.SQ-stop-killing-our-miles.com - open letter ??

              Comment

              • #8
                Stop killing our miles

                Fuel surcharges now make 95% of Y ticket


                [mod edit] Cross posting is not allowed - have moved the post here and edited it. Kindly follow the discussion here.
                Last edited by SQflyergirl; 19 March 2012, 02:35 PM.

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                • #9
                  There's only one sure solution. It pains me to suggest it. Stop flying SQ.

                  Comment

                  • #10
                    It's more worth it to redeem on First & Business Class tickets with your miles.

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