Emirates increases fuel surcharge on Skywards award flights
By David Flynn, June 14 2013
Emirates will increase the fuel surcharge cost on frequent flyer award tickets from July 1st 2013, resulting in Skywards members paying substantially more for a 'free' flight.
The revised fees were revealed as Emirates and Qantas 'aligned' their respective fuel surcharge tariffs on frequent flyer redemption tickets, closing a loophole which has seen travellers avoid hundreds of dollars in Qantas fuel surcharges by using their points to book a codeshare Emirates flight.
Under the revised pricing, the fuel surcharge component of an Emirates frequent flyer ticket from Sydney to London will increase by $310, up from the current $150 to $460.
Here's the table in full.
Emirates says it will reduce base fares accordingly – from $1,872 to $1,562 in the Sydney-London example above – so that commercial ticket prices "will remain relatively unchanged", according to an Emirates spokesperson.
The increase comes only four months since Emirates first introduced a fuel surcharge to Emirates Skywards reward tickets, which were previously exempt from the add-on fee.
“On the joint Emirates and Qantas network, this adjustment is part of an on-going alignment effort which is a core component of the Emirates + Qantas global partnership" the spokesperson said. "Outside of this partnership, Emirates is independently adjusting its fuel surcharge on the airline’s wider network."
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David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
10 May 2011
Total posts 732
I wonder how this wil go down with EK frequent flyers. On several forums EK has been given some backlash lately, both on their FF program as well as on their inflight and ground services.
The introduction of surcharges on redemptions and now the increase is likely to stir up a fuss. It will be inteersting to see how things pan out for EK and whether they will start loosing passengers over this. My prediction is that many people will try out QR, EY or even WY or GF (who has been turning around in recent months). Add the upcoming maintenance on the runways in DXB and the expected delays, there are interesting times ahead. I would think it can impact EK negatively as passengers might take this as an opportunity to avoid DXB and thus EK and if they like QR, EY etc they could switch altogether.
15 Jun 2013
Total posts 9
How does this go down with the ACCC?
Clearly this increase is as a result of their cartel with Qantas.
Also the comment about reducing their base fare 'accordingly' to accommodate the increase in the 'fuel surcharge' for paid tickets is a clear indication that they are rippng us off with their use of this surcharge.
Fuel prices are down but they are dramatically increasing their fuel surcharges?
Under an agreement that was supposed to bring benefits to the consumer?
They're treating their customers like fools and also indicating the ACCC is a bunch of them.
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