While it does not come as a surprise in light of soaring fuel prices, we are seeing a spike in carrier imposed surcharges (formerly called “fuel surcharge”) on award tickets. The two latest additions–Virgin Atlantic and JetBlue–are particularly noteworthy.
That’s a concern because if this comes to other programs, like Aeroplan, a much more mainstream and valuable currency will lose tremendous value overnight. We’ll explore the particular dynamics of the United-JetBlue relationship in a future post, but for now know that it is not going to make sense for you to use your JetBlue miles for travel on United.
Speaking of surcharges more broadly, we’ve already seen several carriers hike prices. For example:
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on Live and Let's Fly.
