V-Flyer

Just shows what a ripoff uk airlines are with their taxes etc for mileage seats

Was really surprised. Also family of 4 using miles to the states is only £400, whereas on VS would come in at almost £1600 for economy rewards seats

Not sure if I'd call the application of fuel surcharges a rip-off in the overall ticket pricing strategy. Consider this itinerary LHR-JFK for example out on 22 Mar and back on 29 Mar, and the total pricing between different airlines:



So even though airlines structure their pricing differently and VS's fuel charge is a large part of the price, the total is almost the same.

However, the real place this comes to the fore is when you book redemptions and then of course the reason for the fare structure becomes clear!

Amazing the difference isn't it.

Let's get down to basics..VS issues somewhere around 500K reward seats a year, the "fuel surcharge" generates a large amount of income for VS.

Why don't US airlines do this, well they know that the legal community would have a field day with them if they did...In fact thy tried tacking on some fee's to reward seats...and got sued.

I am actually surprised that a US based passenger has not gone after one of the non US airlines for this in an American court.

sickbag wrote:Just shows what a ripoff uk airlines are with their taxes etc for mileage seats

Fuel charges are a separate issue, but aren't taxes imposed by the government, not by the airlines? :w

At least all airlines have to show the price including all tax/surcharges in the UK. Airlines advertising outside the UK still don't have to do this.