[ANALYSIS] No Fuel Surcharges on Certain Air Miles Rewards Flights
Apparently, effective on July 17, 2014, Air Miles will no longer require us to pay fuel surcharges on certain reward flights. This can be a game changer, but let’s look into the details further.
The change in policy will apply to flights within Canada, the United States (including Hawaii and Alaska), Mexico and the Caribbean. The catch is that there will be an increased number of reward miles required to redeem for the same flight. International reward flights will continue to have fuel surcharges.
Any reward flights booked before July 17, 2014 will not be impacted. Furthermore, any changed you make before July 17, 2014 not be affected by the increase.
There will be an average of a 16% increase in the number of points required to be redeemed for reward flights. Below are some of the examples provided on the Air Miles website:
- A low season round-trip reward flight will now start at 1,200 reward miles (instead of starting from 950 reward miles)
- A low season round-trip reward flight from British Columbia to Los Angeles will increase by 19% (from 1,600 points to 1,900 points) and 14% during high season (from 2,275 points to 2,600 points).
- A low season round-trip reward flight from Ontario to New York City will increase by 13% (from 1,150 points to 1,300 points) and 14% during high season (from 1,400 points to 1,600 points).
Even though they are no longer charging fuel surcharges, we may still be paying taxes, others fees and surcharges. I am curious to see what the end result will be on July 17, 2014. I am going to hold judgment until I get more details about the program.
We have written quite extensively about the Air Miles program throughout the site.