If I really wanted to
avoid fuel surcharges on an award then the drop in points when I transfer from Singapore Airlines to Virgin Australia might make sense in some circumstances where Singapore imposed high fuel surcharges.
Aeroplan is great because you can book one way awards,
avoid fuel surcharges on airlines like United and Singapore Airlines, they have one of the best search engines (although it can be a bit slow), and a lot of their redemption rates for business class are pretty reasonable.
Not exact matches
A great way to
avoid fuel surcharges is to use Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles to fly
on a Star Alliance Airline like United.
We got the British Airways Signature Card a while back and used it to fly to Europe (making sure to book flights
on AA to
avoid the high
fuel surcharges, per your recommendation).
You will want to be careful who you fly with to
avoid fuel surcharges, but flights
on Air Berlin and Aer Lingus to Europe will generally have low
surcharges.
Redemptions for flights
on British Airways will incur
fuel surcharges, so it is best to
avoid flights
on British Airways where possible.
You'll
avoid high taxes and
fuel surcharges when you focus
on flights operated by a British Airways» airline partners.
Avoid British Airways» ridiculously high taxes and
fuel surcharges by booking flights to Europe
on airlines like Air Berlin and Aer Lingus.
American partner Qatar Airways offers service to Johannesburg from its hub in Doha, and so long as you fly
on Qatar to Doha as your transatlantic hop, it's possible to book an award at this same mileage amount while
avoiding almost all
fuel surcharges and fees.
If you've been
avoiding using those Avios points because of the hefty
fuel surcharges that eat into redemptions for overseas flights
on British Airways, look into using your points
on domestic fares instead.
Even if I want to fly Virgin Atlantic, I'll book it with Delta miles and
avoid the
fuel surcharges, and I'll use up whatever Flying Club miles I currently have left
on Delta tickets.
Using your British Airways Avios
on these carriers lets you
avoid the high
fuel surcharges.
Avoid awards that place you
on British Airways flights unless you want to pay steep
fuel surcharges that add hundreds of dollars to the cost of your redemption.
This would result in hundreds in extra
fuel surcharges when compared with flying
on American or other OneWorld carriers like AirBerlin, Aer Lingus and others, and as such is to be
avoided.
BA will also impose higher
fuel surcharges on most longer flights, but you can
avoid those with shorter distance flights.
A great way to
avoid fuel surcharges is to use Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles to fly
on a Star Alliance Airline like United.
When redeeming with American, it's also possible to
avoid the prohibitive
fuel surcharges that BA levies
on its own flights.
Some things to bear in mind are that you will want to
avoid flying
on British Airways operated flights as those come with very heavy
fuel surcharges (often more than a cash fare would have cost you).
Fuel Surcharges: You want to avoid booking on Air Tahiti Nui, Air Europa, and some of the smaller Asian Skyteam carriers with Delta Miles, as doing so will incur fuel surchar
Fuel Surcharges: You want to avoid booking on Air Tahiti Nui, Air Europa, and some of the smaller Asian Skyteam carriers with Delta Miles, as doing so will incur fuel s
Surcharges: You want to
avoid booking
on Air Tahiti Nui, Air Europa, and some of the smaller Asian Skyteam carriers with Delta Miles, as doing so will incur
fuel surchar
fuel surchargessurcharges.
Avoid any flights
on BA metal to save
on fuel surcharges.
Unfortunately,
fuel surcharges will still be imposed
on partner bookings, but you can always
avoid or mitigate those fees by flying with United.
Asiana Club miles offer some of the best value among Star Alliance carriers
on flights to Europe, particularly if you
avoid fuel surcharges by flying
on United or Air Canada.
British Airways should be
avoided because it levies a substantial
fuel surcharge on flights to the Maldives.
Generally, when going to Europe it's recommended to use Avios
on partner airlines in order to
avoid the high
fuel surcharges that you get hit with
on British Airways when flying through London.
With Flying Blue miles you can book SkyTeam flights, like those
on Delta (
avoid fuel surcharges), Air France, Alitalia.
To get a better understanding of those nuances I recommend reading Travel Is Free's post
on fuel surcharges — that should help you
avoid paying these fees if at all possible.
Unless you can find an award seat
on Delta or Korean Air, it's best to
avoid booking through SkyTeam since Delta adds
fuel surcharges to most of its other partners.
You should also
avoid flying to London
on British Airways because of the airline's very high
fuel surcharges on long - haul flights.
You can use your miles
on 20 partner airlines, and Delta not only allows one - way travel for half the miles, but also an open jaw, which you can use to
avoid fuel surcharges if your flight home originates in Europe.
For example, use United Airlines miles to book an award with no
fuel surcharges, or book an airline that doesn't pass through London so you can
avoid the high passenger duty
on business and first class travel.
Both loyalty currencies cost around the same in the promotions but with MileagePlus miles you can
avoid paying
fuel surcharges when using them
on United and a number of other airlines and,
on top of that, you can purchase long - haul premium cabin awards
on United for fewer miles than you can
on British Airways.
This itinerary is a great way to maximize your miles and minimize paying taxes
on fees, and if you fly
on Polis LOT you can
avoid all
fuel surcharges!
To
avoid high
fuel surcharges you should book
on Polish LOT which costs between 100 to 200 $ for a round trip flight from Europe to the US.
Then return to Europe
on Polish LOT and connect back to your home city to
avoid higher
fuel surcharges in this direction of travel.
Avoid redeeming Asiana Club miles
on airlines with heavy
fuel surcharges (such as most European airlines, including British Airways, Lufthansa and others) for transoceanic travel.
As you can see, the
fuel surcharges can be pretty hefty and so I'd try my best to find availability
on a United or Air Canada flight to
avoid the charges.
You should try to find an alternative route
on the first leg of your trip across the ocean to
avoid British Airways» very high
fuel surcharges and fees.
British Airways will levy a hefty
fuel surcharge on transatlantic flights, so it's best to
avoid them.
We got the British Airways Signature Card a while back and used it to fly to Europe (making sure to book flights
on AA to
avoid the high
fuel surcharges, per your recommendation).
And yes, you should fly
on ANA metal whenever possible to
avoid much higher
fuel surcharges from the ANA Star partners.
Using AA miles you'll want to focus
on other oneworld partners instead of BA to
avoid the
fuel surcharges.
And not all programs have
fuel surcharges, just as most North American programs don't add them to awards
on most partners, South American programs are a place to go to
avoid fuel surcharges too.
Because the reality is you could have the same miles as someone else and spend $ 500
on your «free ticket» instead of $ 0 just because you didn't know about booking intentionally to
avoid fuel surcharges.
A lot of people really appreciated my Master Chart of
Avoiding Fuel Surcharges, so I decided to make a chart that's a resource for which airlines can be searched
on which sites.
See the Master List of
Avoiding Fuel Surcharges or posts
on the specific mileage program for more.
Then, once you're abroad, you'll be better off
on short - haul British Airways flights so you can
avoid those high
fuel surcharges associated with flying across the Atlantic.
But
on this route you'd completely
avoid fuel surcharges regardless of which mileage program you use.
If you want to
avoid those
fuel surcharges all together then try to redeem your miles
on these partners, as they wont» have
fuel surcharges:
the real need is for a comprehensive look at how to
avoid or minimize
fuel surcharges on international tickets..........
Of course you can
avoid fuel surcharges altogether with Avios by flying
on carriers that have no
fuel surcharges as covered in this recent post, but Iberia has very good availability and it's always good to have another option.