Airmiles extra fees--are they kidding?

[tinkerone]

You get free banking too at Bank of Montreal too with this credit card.

also, with the risk of sounding like a commercial, you get airmiles just by banking with bank of montreal. last month i earned 93 airmiles from banking with them.

 

[lolinmr]

My 'taxes' and insurance came to almost $700.00. Taxes that are incorporated into an airline ticket are extra with airmiles. My personal fav. was the $80.00 administatrion fee. I guess that was for being on the phone for well over three hours, being misquoted prices/miles three times, then ultimaley NOT getting a hotel through them

 

[daver]

also, with the risk of sounding like a commercial, you get airmiles just by banking with bank of montreal. last month i earned 93 airmiles from banking with them.

We use Mosaik Gold and have earned just about 1200 airmiles from this alone in the past 6 months!
With the Mosaik gold you can fly for 1400 airmiles off season so it really works out for us!

 

[tinkerone]

My 'taxes' and insurance came to almost $700.00. Taxes that are incorporated into an airline ticket are extra with airmiles. My personal fav. was the $80.00 administatrion fee. I guess that was for being on the phone for well over three hours, being misquoted prices/miles three times, then ultimaley NOT getting a hotel through them

how many tickets did you purchase? i just booked two and here is my breakdown for the two
.
airmiles withdrawn 2800
us taxes and fees 123.04
navigation insurance fuel 150.00
canada air secruity charge 15.88
airport improvemnt fee 30.00
loyalty administration fee 40.00
total 358.92

cost for two tickets, 358.92. as you see i did not buy insurance. i buy travel insurance through my bank and as long as i also purchase 100.00 in travelers chqs than the cancelation insurance is free.
i saved 900.00 on these tickets, loyalty admin fee or not! i'm very happy and if it took 3 hours of my time, well my time is worth 300.00 an hour.
i love my air miles

 

[GirlsTripOct07]

I'd never heard of the "change insurance fee" but yes, you have to pay all taxes and fees when you book a flight.......on top of the airmiles!

totally sucks!

 

[tinkerone]

I'd never heard of the "change insurance fee" but yes, you have to pay all taxes and fees when you book a flight.......on top of the airmiles!

totally sucks!

but you don't have to take this insurance, why would you? i never bite on the 'extras'. i figure if IF i have the confidence that i am going on this trip i don't need the insurance. we have been traveling as a family for 35 years and i have never once bought insurance of any kind on it. one might argue that the day will come when i do need it. i hear this all the time. my thought is if i need to cancel a trip and loss my money i'm still ahead by not having paid the insurance for this period of time. what is travel insurance now? 100 pp? in my family minimum of 2 travel, often 4 and we have even taken and paid for 7. thats saving a minimum of 200 to about 700 a trip. some years we take 2 or three trips. yeah we are way ahead by not having paid insurances.
just don't get sucked in and buy them.

 

[Northstar]

but you don't have to take this insurance, why would you? i never bite on the 'extras'. i figure if IF i have the confidence that i am going on this trip i don't need the insurance. we have been traveling as a family for 35 years and i have never once bought insurance of any kind on it. one might argue that the day will come when i do need it. i hear this all the time. my thought is if i need to cancel a trip and loss my money i'm still ahead by not having paid the insurance for this period of time. what is travel insurance now? 100 pp? in my family minimum of 2 travel, often 4 and we have even taken and paid for 7. thats saving a minimum of 200 to about 700 a trip. some years we take 2 or three trips. yeah we are way ahead by not having paid insurances.
just don't get sucked in and buy them.

Tinkerone, I'm with you if it's CANCELLATION insurance, but it might have been a one-trip-only travel medical policy they were selling along with the other parts of the package. Really necessary if you're not covered by any other insurance.

 

[coastgirl]

but you don't have to take this insurance, why would you? i never bite on the 'extras'. i figure if IF i have the confidence that i am going on this trip i don't need the insurance.

Because you have to book so far in advance to get 4 seats together, I think twice about insurance now, on the points. The insurance I wanted to buy when considering Airmiles was the insurance that would refund me the points if I had to change or cancel. With Aeroplan, a few years ago, I booked, like, 11 months out to get a flt from Victoria to Boston in July for four people. If I hadn't booked that far in advance I never would've gotten the seats. A year later when it was time, we were actually living in Nova Scotia, so, um, getting to YYJ to fly to Boston wasn't as useful! AP charged me a change fee, but I didn't lose my 100,000 pts. With Airmiles, if you change your plans, too bad.

Normally I don't buy flight insurance, but 12 months ahead for a points ticket (or 4 or 5 or 6 now that we have young kids and, it seems, significantly less predictable lives), is a loooong planning horizon during which much can change.

Wow, long answer to a simple question! ;-)

(That said, I am looking for insurance for our first cruise in Dec. b/c I hate paying up front for something that would be hard to catch up with if we're late!!)

Oh, and ITA with Northstar, we always have health insurance when we travel to the US. Most often it comes through work or credit card coverage, but I always check to make sure we're covered. Scary to think about needing help where my NS Health card won't work!!

 

[tinkerone]

Tinkerone, I'm with you if it's CANCELLATION insurance, but it might have been a one-trip-only travel medical policy they were selling along with the other parts of the package. Really necessary if you're not covered by any other insurance.

i'm pretty sure the insurance she was talking about was for if they were to change dates, names, that sort of thing. don't think it was medical, which i get else where as well. i could be wrong though.

 

[tinkerone]

Because you have to book so far in advance to get 4 seats together, I think twice about insurance now, on the points. The insurance I wanted to buy when considering Airmiles was the insurance that would refund me the points if I had to change or cancel. With Aeroplan, a few years ago, I booked, like, 11 months out to get a flt from Victoria to Boston in July for four people. If I hadn't booked that far in advance I never would've gotten the seats. A year later when it was time, we were actually living in Nova Scotia, so, um, getting to YYJ to fly to Boston wasn't as useful! AP charged me a change fee, but I didn't lose my 100,000 pts. With Airmiles, if you change your plans, too bad.

Normally I don't buy flight insurance, but 12 months ahead for a points ticket (or 4 or 5 or 6 now that we have young kids and, it seems, significantly less predictable lives), is a loooong planning horizon during which much can change.

Wow, long answer to a simple question! ;-)

(That said, I am looking for insurance for our first cruise in Dec. b/c I hate paying up front for something that would be hard to catch up with if we're late!!)

Oh, and ITA with Northstar, we always have health insurance when we travel to the US. Most often it comes through work or credit card coverage, but I always check to make sure we're covered. Scary to think about needing help where my NS Health card won't work!!

i cann't belive i posted a response to this then lost it. what a loser i am! anyway, to repeat what i lost i don't understand your thinking. if you were to pay cash for this flight you have to pay for this insurance. you can never make a change to dates or names with out a hefty fee unless you have this insurance. so if you have to pay when you use cash why would you not pay when you use points. points are just for the flight. all taxes and insurances are extra, as they would be if you use cash.

 

[tinkerone]

Because you have to book so far in advance to get 4 seats together, I think twice about insurance now, on the points. The insurance I wanted to buy when considering Airmiles was the insurance that would refund me the points if I had to change or cancel. With Aeroplan, a few years ago, I booked, like, 11 months out to get a flt from Victoria to Boston in July for four people. If I hadn't booked that far in advance I never would've gotten the seats. A year later when it was time, we were actually living in Nova Scotia, so, um, getting to YYJ to fly to Boston wasn't as useful! AP charged me a change fee, but I didn't lose my 100,000 pts. With Airmiles, if you change your plans, too bad.

Normally I don't buy flight insurance, but 12 months ahead for a points ticket (or 4 or 5 or 6 now that we have young kids and, it seems, significantly less predictable lives), is a loooong planning horizon during which much can change.

Wow, long answer to a simple question! ;-)

(That said, I am looking for insurance for our first cruise in Dec. b/c I hate paying up front for something that would be hard to catch up with if we're late!!)

Oh, and ITA with Northstar, we always have health insurance when we travel to the US. Most often it comes through work or credit card coverage, but I always check to make sure we're covered. Scary to think about needing help where my NS Health card won't work!!

wait, my bad. you did not say anything about thinking you should not have to pay this insurance. you just stated why you did get it. sorry. like i said in my earlier post, i'm a loser! and soooo tired this morning, have to get ready to go to work.
again, sorry

 

[coastgirl]

No sweat, now I'm confused too! There are sooo many permutations of insurance, as I am realizing...never used to bother. AC was always fairly flexible with changes (fees yes, but not huge), so I didn't bother, and WJ I know is even more flexible with actual cash bookings...it's just the points with Air Miles that looked in jeopardy to me! Maybe I only cared b/c I was used to the flexibility of Aeroplan (I can't believe I just said that! Flexibility and Aeroplan in the same breath!) and was taken aback when Airmiles said there was NO way I could make changes without insurance (and then the change fee on top of that.)

Anyway, shutting up about it now...

 

[maxie]

. AC was always fairly flexible with changes (fees yes, but not huge), so I didn't bother, and WJ I know is even more flexible with actual cash bookings...it's just the points with Air Miles that looked in jeopardy to me! Was taken aback when Airmiles said there was NO way I could make changes without insurance (and then the change fee on top of that.)

I've been told that for WJ flights redeemed by Air Miles are transferrable to different dates with a fee same as if you bought the flight with cash. You just skip Air Miles and go directly to WJ and tell them you need to change the dates of the flight. So you would not lose the actual Airmiles.

I'm rethinking any cancellation insurance now that I know this.

 

[coastgirl]

I've been told that for WJ flights redeemed by Air Miles are transferrable to different dates with a fee same as if you bought the flight with cash. You just skip Air Miles and go directly to WJ and tell them you need to change the dates of the flight. So you would not lose the actual Airmiles.

That's very interesting...thanks for sharing the info.