While there is no way to fully avoid fuel surcharges when using Aeroplan miles to book Lufthansa, there is an easy way to at least reduce them.
An Award Expert client earlier this week needed a round-trip from Washington, DC to Madrid. As is often the case, the only premium cabin award space available was in Lufthansa Business Class.
Upon choosing the round-trip award, Aeroplan priced two tickets at business class 220,000 miles and 3,074.60CAD in taxes/fees. That’s 2,357.90USD at today’s exchange rate.
But looks what happens when you book the awards as two one-ways instead of a round-trip. On the way out, the taxes remains high, costing 1498.80CAD for the two tickets or 1,149.43USD:
But on the way back, taxes totaled only 762CAD or 584.38USD if booking as a one-way:
$1,149.43 + $584.38 comes to $1733.81, a $624.09 savings over the $2,357.90. That $600 can go a long way in Spain! Imagine the savings a larger family could experience.
I don’t know the logic behind this nor do I particularly care. All I know is that taxes/fees departing Europe are generally much cheaper on Lufthansa than flights to Europe when booked on a one-way basis.
Keep that in mind when booking your next trip to Europe. But also keep in mind that when you book two one-ways instead of a round-trip, you lose the ability to add up to two complimentary stopovers for no extra miles. There are also tradeoffs. Also keep in mind, though, that if your intra-Europe segments are on Austrian, Lufthansa or TAP, you are often better off just purchasing these tickets out-of-pocket due to the high surcharges on award flights.
CONCLUSION
Aeroplan is a great source for booking award travel due to ease of online booking and cancellation, generous routing rules, and competency of the front-line agents.
But don’t forget that for a simple itinerary like this, had the points not already been in Aeroplan a booking on ANA for 88,000 points round-trip (and the same hefty fuel surcharge) may have also made sense, depending upon how much you value your points. ANA tickets can only be booked on a round-trip basis.
image: ERIC SALARD / Flickr
We are still waiting for the update on your SWISS F Aeroplan drama.
I was able to change my tickets to LH F (even on different days) and Aeroplan even waived YQ for me both ways… they know they messed up and need to make it right.
did you keep same origin and destination?
I booked Swiss F LAX-ZRH-MUC for september but hoping to change it to LH F to CDG instead. I hope they let me do that without adding any fees.
yes.
JFK-VIE on the outbound and VIE-EWR on return.
I changed both dates by about a month.
when I was changing the outbound they waived the YQ pretty easily… on the return I had to speak to a supervisor and she insisted she must review why my outbound YQ was waived to begin with… but then she waived it too.
Just be polite and persistent, keep repeating they broke the contract of carriage and you never agreed to the changes they made.
Hey… Reviving an old Comment thread.
So I wanted to change my booking to LH F since space opened up for my date but the supervisor wouldn’t waive YQ and he wouldn’t budge At ALL. I told that direction has been to waive YQ fees but he said that he saw no note on that on my itinerary. I told him this was my first time calling them since I had not heard from them ever, so of course there wouldn’t be any notes in there. At the end, he would not budge whatsoever. How do you think I should approach this next time I call? What should I say? Lol I’m Kinda Afraid they’ll note down that I asked for YQ waiver and that I’m not entitled for that.
I feel that since I waited all these months to make any changes, the supervisors forgot about what the courtesies they have been giving people due to this mess.
Were your originally on a LX F fare? That or the schedule change is the only context in which YQ is waived.
@Matthew:
I originally booked the LX Swiss F award for LAX-ZRH-MUC. Like every one else’s itinerary, it was canceled and I was re-booked on AC J for the same date.
I called in for a date and destination change…LAX-FRA-CDG. And supervisor said that they would only waive change fee. He kept mentioning how my reservation had no notes regarding waiving YQ. I kept telling him that this was the Swiss F award debacle from last year and that AP had been re-accommodating people on LH F, when space opened up, and AP would wave the extra YQ/taxes. But he wouldn’t have any of that. What gives? Did I not say the magic words? I did say please! 🙂 idk, maybe i just have to HUCA.
I’ll try again later today if LH space opens up again. for my desired dates.
Keep trying. Push for a supervisor if you have too. Under no circumstance, should you pay YQ on this fare.
Gotta love Lufthansa, my favorite European carrier.
On a side note, I see as of yesterday, a fellow Boarding Area blogger, Summer Hull’s “Mommy Points” has jumped ship from Boarding Area to “The Points Guy” blog. I suspect she might feel the need to reduce her blogging time to spend more time with hubby Josh, oldest daughter Cate and the youngest one. Guess time will tell how successful that move will be.
I applaud Summer for her move and new venture.
Had a very comfortable journey. Complimentary drinks on the flight were good. I am happy with the experience.