Airmiles extra fees--are they kidding?

[coastgirl]

Anybody get flights lately through Airmiles?

I just called to check dates in December now that we have enough for 4 tickets. The dates were available!! (YHZ-MCO) Extra fees, I ask?

$190.46 PER PERSON.

Plus that change insurance fee, what is that, about $100 per ticket?

I just kept saying, oh my God! Oh my God!

I had just checked, I can get Manchester NH-MCO for about $900 for 4.

So why the heck have I been buying extra cans of Campbell's soup and a trillion Procter and Gamble soaps for years??

Is it just my route, my dates, or is that pretty much what the fees are?

Guess we don't need to be paying extra for that Westjet Mastercard.

Yikes!!

 

[drag n' fly]

We booked once through airmiles for a quick trip to Victoria and didn't realize we had to pay taxes on top. It doubled the cost of our trip. Now we redeem for passes....totally sucks.

 

[CJ]

We have been in the air miles program since its inception, and have only used them for flights once! We quickly learned that the best value of the air miles program is not in the "air"! We live near Buffalo, and I always find cheaper air fare from there......

What we have used them for very successfully (with no extra charges!) are hotel stays, Disney passes, car rentals, grocery store gift certificates, movie nights, gift cards for leather jackets, sunglasses, great restaurants, etc, etc!!!!!!!

I am a HUGE fan of the air miles program, and put everything I can on my credit card to get as many free miles as possible!!

 

[MikeyNS]

Ick! That's why I use my RBC Avion card for points.. it was only ~$90/person for extra fees, which isn't that bad. We're going to try out of Bangor someday. Apparently Allegiant Air flies direct from Bangor for about that.. needless to say a 6 hour drive to save a lot of money is definitely worth it. I'll be using my airmiles for basic passes and upgrade them to non-expiry at the parks! (I hope...)

Anybody get flights lately through Airmiles?

I just called to check dates in December now that we have enough for 4 tickets. The dates were available!! (YHZ-MCO) Extra fees, I ask?

$190.46 PER PERSON.

Plus that change insurance fee, what is that, about $100 per ticket?

I just kept saying, oh my God! Oh my God!

I had just checked, I can get Manchester NH-MCO for about $900 for 4.

So why the heck have I been buying extra cans of Campbell's soup and a trillion Procter and Gamble soaps for years??

Is it just my route, my dates, or is that pretty much what the fees are?

Guess we don't need to be paying extra for that Westjet Mastercard.

Yikes!!

 

[mommylo]

Yes, we used it for flights once and never again. The "extra fees" are all the airport taxes. I totally agree to the other posters. I now use them for gift cards, movie passes, etc. so I don't have to spend as much around Christmas time.

 

[Jaime]

We used our Aeroplan point for Nov...it was $820 for a family of 4...I had to make a date change last week and was charged $300...it took three years of VISA dues which was $375 to get enough points...so our ***FREE tickets cost us $1495.

We really wanted to travel last April but couldn't get seats using our points so we waited until Nov...thing is we could have paid $1998 for 4 of us on seat sale last April.

It just isn't the same as it was!!!

 

[amw]

We used our Aeroplan point for Nov...it was $820 for a family of 4...I had to make a date change last week and was charged $300...it took three years of VISA dues which was $375 to get enough points...so our ***FREE tickets cost us $1495.

We really wanted to travel last April but couldn't get seats using our points so we waited until Nov...thing is we could have paid $1998 for 4 of us on seat sale last April.

It just isn't the same as it was!!!

Must be different costs of different airports. I just booked 4 aeroplan seats for April out of Pearson, and the extra "fees" were $111.80/ticket. That amount is due on any tickets out of Pearson -- free or not. That's why so many head down to Buffalo. (I know there's an extra charge for booking over the phone rather than internet, but I don't know why anyone would do that.)

The change fee per ticket is $55. I'm not sure why you were charged $300

 

[who's ur daddy?]

Thank goodness, I'm not alone! Years ago, we booked flights via Airmiles to the West coast and were shocked by the taxes and charges we had to pay. We only use Airmiles for merchandise now. What a burn.

 

[Jaime]

Must be different costs of different airports. I just booked 4 aeroplan seats for April out of Pearson, and the extra "fees" were $111.80/ticket. That amount is due on any tickets out of Pearson -- free or not. That's why so many head down to Buffalo. (I know there's an extra charge for booking over the phone rather than internet, but I don't know why anyone would do that.)

The change fee per ticket is $55. I'm not sure why you were charged $300

...we had to pay a change fee plus we have more stopovers now so now we have extra airport taxes and I'm pretty sure I had to pay taxes on the $55 because they were providing a service and that was 14% because we live in Newfoundland...I am pretty sure it came in around $300 for 4...I'll check later. Also yes it cost more because we are flying out of St.John's...and we had to do alot of stopovers then we would normally...each airport you stop at charges airport fees...we only had 100000 points so we had limited seats to work with...we also had to book on the phone because the flights using 100000points would not work do to the time between stopovers...even though they were listed...had to take other flights that I couldn't even see online.

 

[Jaime]

Must be different costs of different airports. I just booked 4 aeroplan seats for April out of Pearson, and the extra "fees" were $111.80/ticket. That amount is due on any tickets out of Pearson -- free or not. That's why so many head down to Buffalo. (I know there's an extra charge for booking over the phone rather than internet, but I don't know why anyone would do that.)

The change fee per ticket is $55. I'm not sure why you were charged $300

...we had to pay a change fee plus we have more stopovers now so now we have extra airport taxes and I'm pretty sure I had to pay taxes on the $55 because they were providing a service and that was 14% because we live in Newfoundland...I am pretty sure it came in around $300 for 4...I'll check later. Also yes it cost more because we are flying out of St.John's...and we had to do alot of stopovers then we would normally...we only had 100000 points so we had limited seats to work with...

 

[amw]

...we had to pay a change fee plus we have more stopovers now so now we have extra airport taxes and I'm pretty sure I had to pay taxes on the $55 because they were providing a service and that was 14% because we live in Newfoundland...I am pretty sure it came in around $300 for 4...I'll check later. Also yes it cost more because we are flying out of St.John's...and we had to do alot of stopovers then we would normally...each airport you stop at charges airport fees...we only had 100000 points so we had limited seats to work with...we also had to book on the phone because the flights using 100000points would not work do to the time between stopovers...even though they were listed...had to take other flights that I couldn't even see online.

Yah, the program doesn't work for everyone. My husband flies weekly to the US. We accumulate enough aeroplan points for at least 6 flights a year. He's also "super elite" so we get the choice of any seats for the minimum amount of points, and luckily most flights out of Toronto are direct. So for us, it works great and is one of the few perks we get for his sacrificing his home time.

That being said, if you find the hassle and costs outweigh the benefits of booking airfare, you can always use your points (just like airmiles) for other Disney items... hotel stays and Disney passes. For example, a child's 7-day MYW with hopper is 35,000 points. A night at a value resort starts at 12,000 points. There are no additional fees or delivery costs, so some may like those options better.

 

[ferris198]

I booked through Aeroplan lst year. Between what I paid in taxes and fees, and the fact that the travel times are usually crap, realized that the trip I booked the year before, which included airfare cost me just about the same.
Noe I use points strictly for merchandise.

 

[jeannief]

We also use aeorplan for flights and airmiles for "things". but now I'm saving the airmiles for a car rental when we finally make it to Europe.

 

[laura001]

Anybody get flights lately through Airmiles?

I just called to check dates in December now that we have enough for 4 tickets. The dates were available!! (YHZ-MCO) Extra fees, I ask?

$190.46 PER PERSON.

Plus that change insurance fee, what is that, about $100 per ticket?

I just kept saying, oh my God! Oh my God!

I had just checked, I can get Manchester NH-MCO for about $900 for 4.

So why the heck have I been buying extra cans of Campbell's soup and a trillion Procter and Gamble soaps for years??

Is it just my route, my dates, or is that pretty much what the fees are?

Guess we don't need to be paying extra for that Westjet Mastercard.

Yikes!!

We save our airmiles for flights over to the UK or the like. That way, the savings is a bundle! Paying the taxes etc. for that makes it worth while.

 

[Limmer]

We are using airmiles for a car rental in Calgary in a month. I was surprised that I still had to pay just under $100 when they are charging me 1460 airmiles for 4 days. The lady says that does not cover insurance either!

 

[tgropp]

We are going to Florida from the 15 - 22 and found out that taxes etc using Airmiles were well over $200.00, so for the first time we will be flying out of Detroit for $238.00 inclusive. But in all fairness, we have used airmiles numerous times over the Christmas Holidays and did not mind paying the taxes when the flights alone were around $600-650.00 without taxes. If you travel during Christmas/Easter/March Break, it is still worth it to use Airmiles

 

[dhluvsDisney]

That is why we NEVER use our Airmiles for flights. So many of the neighbors have done that, and I've told them that I have flown out of Minneapolis for less than you paid in fees to use your Airmiles and I used those airmiles for my Disney passes. The flights do not usually make much $ sense.

 

[daver]

We used our Aeroplan point for Nov...it was $820 for a family of 4...I had to make a date change last week and was charged $300...it took three years of VISA dues which was $375 to get enough points...so our ***FREE tickets cost us $1495.

We really wanted to travel last April but couldn't get seats using our points so we waited until Nov...thing is we could have paid $1998 for 4 of us on seat sale last April.

It just isn't the same as it was!!!

I looked at Aeroplan as well, It takes me about 2 years to get enough Airmiles for 5 to go to Florida ( I have Westjet gold m/c) so its about 900.00 with everything in and 150.00 for 2 years of gold card. Still beats 3000.00 out of Halifax... and I'm not driving to the U.S. It would cost about 1000.00 to fly from there... plus driving, gas nerves etc. I'll pay the same using A/M flying out of Hfx thanks anyway!

 

[SplashMom]

We have used airmiles in the past for flights and are using them again for our next trip. Yes, there are fees/taxes but like the previous poster stated, it is still much cheaper than full price tickets. We really don't have the option of flying from the US (minimum 12 hour drive--expenses/hotel, etc.) so we don't mind paying. Last trip it was around $750 for 4 tickets versus $2500. We always get the dates we want so it is still a value for us. I also used our airmiles for Seaworld tickets--worked well!

 

[OntFamily]

I dropped our CIBC Aerogold Visa once I realized the annual fees alone ($170 for two cards) almost covered the entire airfare cost out of Buffalo to Florida. Then once you include Aeroplan's service charges + airport fees......

I find MBNA's Starwood Card a much better offering -- free hotel rooms with no user fees.