Quote:
Originally Posted by jimworcs
I am afraid PHX that it is misleading to say that
The airlines have become adept at creating artificial mechanisms to divide the price of their service up, in order to mislead consumers as to the true price of the service. Many of the "fees" which airlines charge, are in fact standard costs of business. If I go into Target to buy a towel, and it is priced at $20, I don't expect at the till to be be asked for $32, which is $20 for the towel, $3 for road tolls, $2 for Workers Compensation Tax, $5 Freight Fees, $2 Fuel Surcharge. This bogus pricing is deliberately deceptive and should be regulated. Fuel is a basic cost of doing business and should be incorporated into the price, as is landing fees, airport security charges, etc. It is time to stop this nonsense. Furthermore, if airlines have "incentive programmes" (which are paid for in the airfares) these should not imply that they are free or subject to a vague "charges and taxes". The amount should be transparent and the terms clear. Instead, airlines deliberately obfuscate and confuse, making it difficult to determine the true cost and frequently making the "free" flights unavailable. This customer is a frequent flyer.. this is how he amassed the miles in the first place.. and now they have alienated a good customer. The incentive programmes should be scrapped or made more transparent.. that is the bottom line.
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Last time I went to Target the sales tax was listed on the receipt separately. So if I buy a towel for $20 I expect to pay $20 plus some tax. If I use my miles for a ticket, I expect there will be some taxes and fees collected based on my destination.
Fact remains the OP is getting a ticket which would have cost him over $8800 CAD in total for miles plus just over $600 in taxes, fees and surcharges. If he doesn't like paying the taxes and fees he doesn't have to use his miles. My point in breaking down those taxes and fees was to illustrate that regardless of the form of payment (miles or cash) he would pay the same taxes and fees regardless.
If Air Canada wanted to they could eliminate the fuel surcharge and raise the number of miles required for the ticket. Since the OP has 96,720 miles in his account and this business class ticket to London requires 85,000 any substantial increase would put this ticket out of his reach anyway.