Taxes and Fees on Air Miles flights

[Northern Disney Girl]

Hello my fellow Canadian friends!

We are in the VERY beginning stages of planning our next trip to WDW for next summer!

We are considering using our Air Miles to fly directly from our home city(Thunder Bay). In the past we have driven to MSP and flown from there to lessen the cost.

I just did a search on WestJet and the taxes and fees on flights from YQT to MCO come out to about $580 CD for 4 people (2A, 2C)

is this what I can expect to pay for the taxes and fees if we redeem our Airmiles for flights??.

Thanks!!

 

[Northern Disney Girl]

Anybody??

There has to be at least one person here on the DIS who knows the answer!!

 

[Lynda Silk]

I just called Air Miles today to ask about flights from Toronto to Orlando for 2 people. They told me that the taxes would be about $190 per ticket. Maybe you could compare the Toronto and Thunder Bay flights, and see if $580 makes sense for you.

 

[yxe dad]

I believe that in addition to the airline taxes and fee's there is also an Airmiles booking fee of $25-$50 per ticket.

 

[cpbjgc]

I think the $190 per ticket is standard. We fly out of Winnipeg, and the figure sounds the same as we paid for airmiles flights to Orlando.

 

[Northern Disney Girl]

Thanks everyone!!!

$190 per ticket???? Yikes! I think we will use our airmiles for our tix and drive to MSP!!! Waaayyyy cheaper!!!

 

[chimo2u]

I used Aeroplan miles for my son's ticket the other day with Aircanada....it was a one-way ticket from Orlando to Edmonton. I was surprised because the points cost for the ticket was only 27,000 airmiles for an EXECUTIVE class ticket ...they usually run at least 88,000 miles. I only had to pay $62.00 for that ticket's fees.....GREAT DEAL and we are excited to be trying out first class! I hope you find a good deal for your trip, airfare always stresses me out, I am so glad it is all booked now!

 

[tgropp]

I am flying out of Detroit for the Christmas holidays but I got airmile airfare tickets (Westjet) for my two children and their spouses to join up with us later. I paid $170.00 in taxes for each ticket. I only use airmiles for airfare during the high season as to make it worth while. Just a heads up. Do you have a Mosiak airmiles CC? If you pay an extra $90.00 yearly fee , you get some good benefits but the best one is 25% off the amount of airmiles you need. An example: If 4 people are going and it is 2000 points per person, this benefit brings it to 1500 airmiles. Its like pay for 3 and get one free.

 

[Purpleblanket]

Hello my fellow Canadian friends!

We are in the VERY beginning stages of planning our next trip to WDW for next summer!

We are considering using our Air Miles to fly directly from our home city(Thunder Bay). In the past we have driven to MSP and flown from there to lessen the cost.

I just did a search on WestJet and the taxes and fees on flights from YQT to MCO come out to about $580 CD for 4 people (2A, 2C)

is this what I can expect to pay for the taxes and fees if we redeem our Airmiles for flights??.

Thanks!!

Hi there, I may be able to help answer your questions.
We are flying out of Winnipeg Manitoba (pretty close to Thunder Bay) this coming December which is high season on west jet using airmiles. It takes 4400 air miles each from here. However, if you get a BMO airmiles Mastercard with an annual fee of 97.00 you can save 25% airmiles each. So I figured the 97$ would be well spent to save me over 4400 airmiles for 4 tickets.
So, we used 3200 airmiles each for the flight. We also paid 185 each for taxes and fuel charges. On top of that I purchased non-medical insurance which would be flight cancellation and lost luggage up to $1500.00. (for aprox 70$ each)
Therefore, we paid 515.00 for me and my husband and 511.00 for the two kids. $1.026.00 for the 4 of us. We have a direct flight to orlando, but on the way home, we have a stopover in london ontario. My kids are coming home on a different date than us and have a stop over in toronto. (That's why we had two different amounts for the taxes, fuel surcharges and insurances.) To break it down for you, we paid approx 188.00 for taxes and fuel charges each and 70 for insurance each.
Hope this helps with your deciding!!

Debbie

 

[aristocat65]

Thanks everyone!!!

$190 per ticket???? Yikes! I think we will use our airmiles for our tix and drive to MSP!!! Waaayyyy cheaper!!!

I think that's a good idea. You could use your airmiles for gas cards.

Really though, I haven't been impressed with airmiles for flights for some time now as it seems their taxes and fees are much higher than you would pay on a purchased ticket or as Chimo2u points out with Aeroplan. There are also the very strict rules (stricter than any airline programs) on cancellations and changes - unless you pay even more for their cancellation insurance you lose all your miles and the taxes and fees.

I've really changed over to pursuing airline program miles rather than Airmiles program miles for flights. I still really like the Airmiles program miles for gift certificates, park passes, movie passes, etc, and think I get much more value that way.

 

[Northern Disney Girl]

Thanks so much everyone for all your help and advice!! Unless we get a SUPER GREAT deal on flights w/Airmiles, I think it will be smarter for us to use our miles for our tickets and drive to MSP to fly from there!

Here is how it breaks down -

Cost to fly from MSP (flights, gas, food, hotel) - ~$800us (we have $400 in airline vouchers from our last trip!)

(if we use our airmiles for our tix then that is covered!!)

VS.​

Cost of using airmiles to fly from home - ~$190 x 4 = $760 + OOP cost of WDW tickets = waaaayyy more than I am willing to spend!!!!!


I think that it makes more financial sense to use the airmiles for our MYW tickets and drive to MSP!!!

 

[BellyBaby]

I think the $190 per ticket is standard. We fly out of Winnipeg, and the figure sounds the same as we paid for airmiles flights to Orlando.

Ouch! $190!! I had no idea AirMiles worked that way! I will use my miles for tickets or other things now. We've flown out of Fargo with Allegiant Air for as low as $150 US each, all taxes in. I'm glad I found this thread, now I can stop hoarding my miles and start "spending"!! Thanks, posters!

 

[momof2gr8kids]

Hi - we had the same predicament (and are from Thunder Bay too!)

It would have cost over $500 for taxes using air miles. We booked w/ Alegiant from Duluth - $69 one way - $840 all together w/ taxes, fees & luggage fees for 4 of us.

The flight options for the times we wanted using air miles had a 12 hr lay over in Toronto as well. It would be much better to use your AM for tickets than airfare, espcially if you get a good deal from Duluth or Minneapolis. Because we booked a free dining package, I ended up cashing in some AM for Shell gas gift cards. When I filled the van I used the gift cards, and took the $$ I would have spent on gas and put it into our Disney fund.

 

[Northern Disney Girl]

Hi - we had the same predicament (and are from Thunder Bay too!)

It would have cost over $500 for taxes using air miles. We booked w/ Alegiant from Duluth - $69 one way - $840 all together w/ taxes, fees & luggage fees for 4 of us.

The flight options for the times we wanted using air miles had a 12 hr lay over in Toronto as well. It would be much better to use your AM for tickets than airfare, espcially if you get a good deal from Duluth or Minneapolis. Because we booked a free dining package, I ended up cashing in some AM for Shell gas gift cards. When I filled the van I used the gift cards, and took the $$ I would have spent on gas and put it into our Disney fund.

HOWDY NEIGHBOUR!!!!!

If you would ever like to come out of annonymity you can PM me!!! I wonder if we live near each other?? Hope you have a WONDERFUL trip!!!

 

[momof2gr8kids]

HOWDY NEIGHBOUR!!!!!

If you would ever like to come out of annonymity you can PM me!!! I wonder if we live near each other?? Hope you have a WONDERFUL trip!!!

Will send you a PM.

 

[coastgirl]

Yeah, we have flown all four of us from Manchester on SW for about $500. And we've also paid $800 for our "free" tickets on airmiles from Halifax. For us to drive to the states, it's 10+ hours of driving and at least two hotel nights, plus parking...but it really, really annoyed me to spend $800 for free tickets...