Reward Fare Taxes and Charges

I have just managed to grab 2 Gs return LHR - MIA in November ;)

Just got a quick question regarding the taxes we paid. I had 161,000 miles in my account and my wife had 58,000. Because of the split the agent said we would have to do effectively 3 bookings which he would link together. I booked a return using my account, the taxes on this were £526.00. My wife had to book two one way fares, one from my account and one from hers. the taxes on this in total were £789.00. Does that sound right, he said it worked out more because of the way they calculate taxes on one way fares!! he did look at transferring miles, but this worked out just as expensive.

Thanks,

Cath

Your taxes seem right for a return flight £526 but a single is £363.57 taxes so thinking the amount you were charged seems excessive it may be worth phoning up VS

i think its right, effectively you have booked 2x 1 way fares witch is 2x £363.57, unless you are gold then you can't pool your miles into a family account to avoid this.

I booked my reward flights separately this year.
Outbound to MCO £598.68 for the two of us booked last March
Inbound from ATL £586.20 booked in April

Doesn't sound right to me to be paying so much more.

Dick D

Thanks for your replies. I have just done a dummy booking for the same route, two one way fares. The taxes going out are £389.00 and return are $500, converted to £ is £400.00. It must be that the american taxes are higher and also with the low exchange rate.

Thanks again,

Cath

Thanks for your replies. I have just done a dummy booking for the same route, two one way fares. The taxes going out are £389.00 and return are $500, converted to £ is £400.00. It must be that the american taxes are higher and also with the low exchange rate.

Thanks again,

Cath

US taxes are usually a lot cheaper than the UK
Its not only taxes, the title is taxes & airline surcharges.
You are basically getting penalised a fee for not flying return.

What?! Is this a new silly quirk of the new booking system? Used to be able to use miles from multiple accounts without having to book them as separate tickets.

It's certainly a new policy - whether it's related to the new website I don't know.

I suspect VS realised there wasn't much to be gained by allowing infrequent fliers with small mileage balances to pool them to earn a "free" flight.

They have, however, introduced a new household account for Gold FC members which allows the pooling of miles by (in theory at least) their more loyal customers.