“Historically, US Airlines have never added fuel surcharges on flights on their own metal. While it is standard practice for European and Asian airlines to impose a fuel or carrier imposed fuel surcharge, this has historically not been the case for flights on US based carriers Delta, American Airlines, and United. That did change last year when Delta started imposing fuel surcharges on flights originating in Europe but as long as you booked a one way trip from the US to Europe or a round trip starting in the US, you would only be responsible for paying just the taxes.”
Confirmed: Fuel Surcharges on SkyMiles Awards is An Error — For Now
What you just read is from this article written earlier today by James of Point Me To The Plane, who encountered fuel surcharges while pricing award tickets…
…but FlyerTalk member SkyMilesTeam — who is the official company representative of Delta Air Lines on FlyerTalk — posted this message moments ago: “Hi everyone, wanted let you know that the surcharge that you saw for certain Europe Award Tickets earlier today was an error. Not to worry, as we took notice and the issue has been resolved. Happy Friday!”
Summary
I have been tolerant of many changes by Delta Air Lines which I perceived as negative in recent years; but I have justified them with the simple fact that as long as people continued to patronize the airline — service from flight attendants and other front-line employees is one of a number of reasons to still do so — then it was simply the market forces of supply and demand at work…
…but when I first read the news of fuel surcharges to be added to certain SkyMiles award tickets, I started questioning to myself whether or not the program is still worth my participation — and despite a long history with Delta Air Lines both as a customer and conducting business with the corporate office of the airline, I could not reach a positively definitive answer.
In other words, adding those fuel surcharges might have well been the final straw for me — but the news that adding those fuel surcharges was an error was announced before I was anywhere near a final decision.
Although FlyerTalk members javabytes and UA Fan both suspected in the aforementioned discussion that this error might actually be a trial run for an eventual implementation sometime in the future prior to the official announcement, I still cannot help but wonder the same thing myself.
I certainly hope not…
Photograph ©2016 by Brian Cohen.
