In a surprising move yesterday, Qatar Airways more than doubled the carrier fees payable on award flights, throwing frequent flyers into a scramble.
However, in response to growing backlash, the airline has now scaled back the fee increases, explaining that the initial hikes were the result of an IT error.
What happened?
Travellers were caught off guard yesterday when they logged on to the Qatar website to book award flights via Privilege Club, only to find drastically increased fees on popular routes.
The fee hikes – up to double or more – came as part of Qatar Airways’ shift from a segment-based system to one based on total distance travelled, meaning longer flights now carry higher charges. However, within hours, the airline adjusted the fees, citing a mistake in the initial rollout.
In a statement published by Head for Points, Qatar Airways said:
“Qatar Airways Privilege Club sincerely apologises for any inconvenience our valued members may have faced during the rollout of our revised reward fees policy earlier today. The reward fees that were displayed for booking Qatar Airways award flights were higher than intended. The issue has since been resolved and the correct reward fees, as per the revised policy, are now being reflected and applied for all Qatar Airways award flight bookings.”
However, while the rollback brought award fees down, they’re still higher than they were before the changes.
How much did Qatar Airways hike fees after reversing the increase?
Though some relief came with the adjustment, the new fees remain noticeably higher.
For example, earlier this year, I booked a business class Saver award from Rome to Sydney, paying €241 ($398 AUD) in carrier charges. Now, the same award comes with a fee of €328 ($541 AUD). This represents a 36% increase.
The fee increases appear to be a mixed bag across different routes, with some lower, and others higher than my example above.
A trend of airlines raising fees without notice
Qatar Airways’ sudden fee increase follows a growing trend among airlines to raise surcharges without warning.
Emirates, for example, has repeatedly increased the surcharges on its business and first-class awards over the years, also with no advance notice. The fees have climbed so high—almost $2000AUD one-way from Australia to Europe in business or first class—that redeeming points for premium cabins with Emirates is often no longer worth it.
This trend of quietly hiking fees without notifying members has devalued points and miles across several loyalty programs.
Will Velocity Frequent Flyer pass on the new fee increases?
Velocity Frequent Flyer members enjoy broad access to Qatar Airways award seats, including premium cabins.
However, booking these awards with Velocity points already comes with high fees, leaving frequent flyers with a significant cash outlay on top of their points.
Given Velocity’s practice of passing partner airline fees directly onto travellers, it’s possible that they will pass on Qatar Airways’ recent increases as well, further raising the cost for Velocity members to book Qatar’s premium awards. We’ll be watching with interest.
Bottom line
While it’s positive to see that Qatar Airways has scaled back the initial fee hike, frequent flyers were understandably caught off guard by the sudden fee increase.
The partial reversal provides some relief, however it raises questions about the process behind the rollout. Either there was a significant IT issue causing the fee structure change to be implemented incorrectly, or Qatar Airways may not have fully considered the backlash before moving forward with such a major change.
As we move forward, it will be interesting to see whether these fee changes affect the availability of award seats with partner airlines or if Qatar Airways will release more saver seats to maintain the appeal of its program. Frequent flyers will be watching closely to see how the situation develops.
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