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Why aren't fuel surcharges on airfares coming down?

33 Comments

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33 Comments
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What a silly question. Nobody gives up a good thing without being forced to do so.

Greed is incurable.

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If Airlines can get Govt support and public funds why would they take trouble of carrying people from one place to another? And for that maintaining high fuel surcharges is a must.

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Because they were never fuel surcharges. Sure they needed to raise fares when fuel was expensive, and now they need to raise fares to make up for empty airplanes. Calling it a surcharge is ridiculous when the reason for it keeps changing. Just put it into the price.

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Because the price of the ticket is too low now. Airmiles do not cover the fuel surcharge or taxes. only the price of the ticket. So they have found a way to screw people out of their airmiles. I agree that the price should be the price. My ticket to Toronto this summer is only 40000Yen! Wow! But please pay 85000Yen. My airmiles will only cover the first 40000Yen. Nice. Thank you airline. there goes about 5 or 6 years of points down the toilet.

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In my 12 years of flying between Japan and Canada the price of a ticket has never been as low as 40000Yen. Not even close! A bunch of shysters is what they are.

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Greed is incurable.

So true. Check the flights for golden week with the Japanese airlines. They're already 5 times the price of any other time of the year.

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Because the airlines would rather keep that money.

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fuel surcharges have/are decreasing on cargo anyway, goos luck with the pax side!

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They know that they gonna be hit with crap economy later on. They are putting this money away for rainy day. Give it couple years - there probably not gonna be many airlines left.

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Why don't you ask your corporate sponsor British Airways instead of JT readers?

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Fuel surcharges are a great lurk for the airlines. At about half the price of the overall cost to travel it means that people using miles still have to pay half the cost (instead of getting it free like in the past) and as the airlines only pay travel agents based on "ticket price" they only have to pay half as much to them. These seem to be the biggest advantages in keeping the surcharge separate.

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In Japan a lack of legislation against misleading advertising exacerbates the problem. Basically, though, this is just a rip-off. IATA should ban this rip-off by what amounts to a cartel.

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Because this is Japan, and JAL and ANA control so much of the market that they can pretty much do whatever they damn well please.

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in the case of ANA it's so they can subsidise their Thai Airways codeshare passengers who pay a lower surcharge to sit on the same plane

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Greed!

And don't forget that JAL and ANA have also asked the government permission to put up air fairs from April

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Its because they need the money to pay for the high wages/salaries, perdiums, drycleaning (of their staff), and they have to appease the unions. If the pay isnt good enough therell be a strike which will cost millions a day. Aviation was my major in Uni and I worked in the field for about 10 years. Theres lots going on...and in the end people will still fly.

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The whole thing was a sham in the first place. I mean, if I had a choice I'd just go for the no-frills basic ticket without the 'extra service' surcharge. But, the catch is, it isn't an optional component. You need fuel to fly the plane. These days I think the airlines hedged too much on fuel rising thru the roof... And people were blaming this on speculative traders. Gee.

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pointofview- why shouldn't flight attendants and other (staff) earn a high wage? In the recent jet which 'landed' in the Hudson or the one which caught fire on the runway in Denver which would you rather have a) well paid, trained professional staff or b) temp-staff from some outsourcing company?

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because when they bought their fuel they paid an hight price. They usualy pay the price with a 6 months delay.. so their price is still 6 months old. Thus the delay to lower the price

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USB,

Their wages are great to begin with. 30-60 dollars per hour for Flight Attendants. There are thousands of Pilots who work less than half a month and still get paid 150-200 thousand dollars/years. Thats just 2 sections. Unions can play a crucial role to help employees gain security and increase their wages but lets be reasonable. In anycase, fuel is unjustly expensive and the technique being used to sell tickets is criminal. Just think if a small shop or individual did this.

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They usualy pay the price with a 6 months delay.. so their price is still 6 months old.

I don't remember them waiting 6 months to slap the surcharges on when fuel prices went up.

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yes. i totally missed the 6 months delay when prices went up! what is up with that jmarc?

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Because they can. How else are you going to get anywhere?

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jmarc, can you quote any sources with the 6 month buying fuel thing. What if I said that it is every quarter, could you prove me wrong?

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Greed.

They found every possible way to charge a little more hear and there. Bag charges, fuel charges x,y and z charges.

We should stop paying surcharges now that fuel costs are down. And governments should enforce this!

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Its a commplete rip-off. Airlines are basically greedy, and couldnt care less about passengers. In conomy class they shoe-horn us in like sardines in a can and still charge exorbitant prices for Fuel Tax. JAL is one of the worst offenders. My ticket price and the Fule Tax price were both the same on two recent international flights. I wont be glying with JAL again. Britsh Airways are as bad, and both these aorlines are currently in trouble. I am glad. They deserve it.

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USB

The problem with JL/NH isnt wages per say its the number of staff, the airlines, as a whole are way over staffed thats why they loose some much money, if you cud see the back office staff, number in sales etc, its criminal but JL/NH do not have any domestic competition thats why its so bad.

In cargo JL is typically Y15-20/kg higher higher than their competition, NH about Y10-15/kg higher, thats a huge premium to use them that I wont pay unless I have no choice, and domestically guess what there is no choice, thankfully I mostly ship in/out of Jpn not much internal

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Jmarc is right, when airlines see prices rise, they will usually buy into advance futures contracts for fuel. The greater the price rise, the longer the contract usuaully. Peeople do teh same with their fixed rate mortgages.

Airlines are still tied to contracts when crude was running to $140/barrel (so av-gas is much higher) and they will take time to shake out. The length of that contract will vary.

Lastly of course is business protection. Even as those contracts expire, Airlines will seek to squeeze out extra $ to support their dwindling profits due to reduced demand.

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PSmash

costs chgs are ALWAYS different coming or going, think about it, different countries, different currencies, pretty simple really, now that has nothng to do with whether or not yr being ripped off, just pointing out the obvious

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Because it's a COMPLETE rip off scam!

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Case and point is that I purchased the SAME ticket on the same airline overseas cheaper than in Japan.

Also of considerable note is that it costs near twice as much to fly return to a country from Tokyo than for that country to fly return to Tokyo!

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I just got 10000 yen back from HIS flying to NZ. Cathay dropped their surcharge...and they have the nice thin young attendants bringing me beer after beer ...

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As imarc points out, the airlines hedged at a very high price. The surcharges should come down once new contracts are made but I guarantee in these lean times the reduction will be as little as possible.

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