UPDATE Feb 1. New prices per RT flight to Tokyo.
- New fuel + insurance surcharge: $388, up from $196
- Total cash portion with all fees and taxes: $482, up from $290
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A huge ANA fuel surcharge hike is going to make your “free” award ticket much more expensive.
I’ve found it almost incidentally, doing a research for a piece I’m writing for a client. Go to this link and click International Surcharge Info. This fee is per one-way flight, so double it for round-trip travel.
The ANA Mileage Club has the best award redemption scheme in the world, and I’ve written tons of raving posts about it. But this development is a bit troubling. I think this is the record-high fuel surcharge I’ve ever seen on ANA, although, to be honest, I’ve only been “tracking” ANA for a few years. It basically brings the total cash cost of an award roundtrip flight to Japan to ~$500 up from ~$300 right now.
The current fuel surcharge between the U.S. and Japan is $95 one way
Man, what a hike!
It will be interesting to see what the surcharges for connecting flights via Tokyo will look like after February 1. The amounts ANA have added to connecting flights have always defied logic. They’ve never made sense to me and, I’m pretty sure, most others. You can check the following link for the recent history of the ANA YQ changes.
Update August 2021: ANA Fuel Surcharges Have Crept Up on Its Own and Partners Flights
We don’t know when exactly ANA makes the change and whether they go by the U.S. or Japan time. At the time of writing (6:45 pm EST on Jan 31) I’m still seeing the old surcharge.
Should you decide to make a run for it today, ANA is only charging 3,000 miles fee if you have to cancel the flight.
Why is it happening?
It’s unclear to me what is justifying this enormous hike. Fuel surcharges in Japan are regulated by the government and tied to the price of Singapore kerosene trades, so has the price of kerosene really jumped two-fold in the last two months? Maybe someone who knows better how it works can offer their commentaries.
UPDATE: See the great comment of how it works by reader Ipod. Basically, they raise the surcharge every time the fuel goes beyond the $10 mark. So when the fuel cost was below $80, the YQ for Japanese airlines (ANA and JAL) was $95 each way. Now that the fuel price is over $100, they’re adding $190. Doesn’t make things any easier, but it is what it is, I guess.
This is the JAL table, but again, the fuel surcharges on both airlines are identical.
