Lee

I just booked two ff seats to Vietnam, one from Northwest and the other from Delta--the same flights, etc. Northwest is charging me $56 +change +$5 for phone booking and Delta's charges are $26+ change, no extra for phone booking. Northwest claims the government (which?) charges them a different rate than Delta, their partner. I am grateful to get the tickets but find the charges a bit much for the same seat.

rkkwan

Just curious. Which airline do they put you on to Vietnam? Korean, China Southern or other?

sandy_b

I was charged $111 for my ff ticket to Istanbul (from Dallas) + the $5 fee because I didn't book it on-line . . . and it was not available to book on line! At least I got a ticket . . . $111 is still a lot less than paying $1300.

Have a safe trip,
Sandy (in Denton)

Patty

Two possible reasons -

1. Different carriers often choose to pass on different international taxes on award bookings to their customers. It's very common to find that airline A quotes a different tax amount than airline B for the same exact itinerary. I wouldn't worry about it too much as there really isn't anything you can do about it. In your case, it's only a $30 difference.

2. Delta at one point was having problems issuing award tickets with the correct tax amounts and was charging everyone approx. $20 for international award bookings regardless of their destination. Perhaps they're having the same problem again. I redeemed 2 tickets to Nairobi using Skymiles late last year and paid $20 per ticket in taxes when it was supposed to be more like $120 per ticket. Some DL ff'ers reported having to pay the difference at the airport. I never did (though I fully expected to pay at some point).

BTW Delta is supposed to charge you a $5 telephone booking fee too. I'm surprised they didn't charge you or have you not ticketed yet? If you haven't ticketed yet, expect to pay the $5 fee from DL as well.

I'd be interested to hear which carrier you're flying too.

Lee

We are routed on Korean Air, out of LAX (we are west coast). There may have been a choice, but the timing was best on KA.
I have written NWA for an explanation (several phone calls did not satisfy me).

CarolA

WARNING!

Delta's computers keep messing up the internatonal taxes. So you may very well get hit with an additional charge. (They did this to me on my trip to Paris at Christmas)
Also, I think DL waived the $5 booking fee since there is no way to book online for international FF miles.