One of the most annoying things about booking an award ticket is dealing with fuel surcharges. Specifically I am trying to book a ticket using ANA miles and so started asking the question about ANA fuel surcharges on an award ticket and on what airlines does ANA charge fuel surcharges. Some airlines (British Airways I’m looking at you!) put fuel surcharges on award tickets that are so high that they’re sometimes even more than a cost of an economy ticket itself!
(SEE ALSO: How to avoid fuel surcharges on British Airways)
(SEE ALSO: Avoiding fuel surcharges on the cheapest miles to South Africa)
ANA fuel surcharges on award tickets
ANA miles are a pretty big sweet spot for business class from the US to Asia. It’s only 95,000 miles per person ROUNDTRIP in business class, AND you can take advantage of several stopovers on one award ticket. Another advantage is that mixed-cabin itineraries are not a problem at all. My daughter and I are looking for a trip to Taiwan and Beijing (to fly the Hello Kitty plane) – here’s an example of an itinerary that we’re looking at
But the problem has been that many airlines charge fuel surcharges on the route. They haven’t been AS egregious as some of the British Airways fuel surcharges above, but, if I can help it, I don’t really want to pay an extra $500 / ticket if I don’t have to!
Does ANA charge fuel surcharges?
Here’s a table of the different airlines and whether ANA charges fuel surcharges on award tickets with these airlines
| Does ANA charge fuel surcharges when flying… | Long-haul (one way) | Short-haul (one way) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air Canada | No | No | Air Canada has $62 in fuel surcharges - ANA does not pass them on |
| Air China | $214 | $10-15 (TPE-PEK) | |
| Air New Zealand | No | No | |
| ANA | $86 | $50 (NRT-HNL) | |
| Asiana Airlines | $111 | $10 (NRT-ICN) | |
| Austrian | $150 | $50 (FRA-VIE) | |
| Avianca | No | No | |
| Brussels Airlines | $150 | $45 (BRU-CDG) | |
| EgyptAir | $80 | $78 (CAI-AUH) | |
| Ethiopian Airlines | $107 | No | |
| EVA Airways | $33 | $10-15 (TPE-PEK) | |
| LOT | $60 | No | |
| Lufthansa | $180 | $50 (FRA-WAW) | |
| Scandinavian Airlines | No | No | |
| Singapore Airlines | No | No | |
| South African Airways | $110 | $96 (JNB-MPM) | |
| Swiss | $187 | $67 (ZRH-GVA) | |
| TAP | $150 | $20 (LIS-OPO) | |
| Thai Airways | $52 | $10 | |
| Turkish | $133 | $10 | |
| United | $68* | No | Only on flights to Asia - United flights to Europe and the Americas don't pass on fuel surcharges to ANA and United does not charge YQ on flights to Oceania |
These amounts were in economy, but in many cases the fuel surcharge amount for economy in business were the same or similar. Once you know from the table if ANA charges / passes on fuel surcharges for a given airline, you can use ITA Matrix to look up your flights and find the exact amount. It will be called YQ or YR and look something like this
Finding award space to book on ANA
ANA is a member of the Star Alliance (QUIZ: Can you name all 28 members of the Star Alliance?) and generally I’ve found the best way to search for award space is to find it on United.com. Then, once you’ve found the flights that you want with saver availability on United, you can book your ticket with ANA miles. ANA is a partner of American Express Membership Rewards, and it takes about 3 days for points to transfer. ANA is also a partner of SPG
Our final(ish) itinerary
So, taking what we’ve learned about ANA fuel surcharges on award tickets, here’s the basic framework of an itinerary that we’re looking at. Air Canada is one of the few ANA partners that does NOT charge fuel surcharges (well, technically, Air Canada DOES charge about $68 one way for a longhaul flight but ANA does NOT pass them on. We knew we wanted to fly EVA Airways for the Hello Kitty plane, we knew we’d have $33 for that flight, and another $10-15 for the flight between Taipei and Beijing (regardless of whether we booked an Air China or EVA flight), but we were hoping not to have to pay anything else
That is hard to beat for ROUNDTRIP business class from the US to Asia with 2 stops (and I could have maximized it even further had I wanted)
Have you used ANA miles to fly business class to Asia? Leave your experience in the comments
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Good post. The Hello Kitty plane is fun and EVA is simply outstanding, but the leaving around midnight is a bit less than ideal. So 95,000 miles to anywhere in Asia or just North Asia?
It’s to what they consider “Asia 1”. You can find the exact country listings on their website, but it’s basically China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. South Korea is in its own zone but also only 95,000. Japan is only 85,000. The rest of Asia (Asia 2) is 136,000
Very useful information! Thank you! Is it easy to book on Ana’s website or is it better to call? Will they hold your flights in order for you to transfer miles in? How long does it take to transfer membership rewards in?
Also, I think you’re missing the last word in the paragraph “Finding award space to book on ANA.” Last sentence “Membership R”
Thanks! I’m in the process of booking and it seems like ANA’s website should work if you use multi-search. I am not aware of any way to hold flights – you have to transfer and take your chances :-). It took about 2-3 days to transfer MRs in and thanks for catching my typo!
Is your table of charges for business or economy?
Most airlines were about the same for either. But you can also use ITA Matrix to figure out the fuel surcharges on a given route. Once you know which airlines pass them on (from the table), then ITA will show you the amounts for the given flights you’re looking at. I’ve updated the post with more info on that
So when you say $60 for LOT, what does that mean? That just means that LOT does pass on fuel surcharges and we need to look up the YQ for our flight?
What it meant was that the fuel surcharges if you fly on LOT were about $60. Unfortunately, since this article was written, ANA has increased their fuel surcharges by quite a bit (see previous comments)
The chart is a little misleading. I’m looking to book a business class flight from JFK to TLV. Miles are great at 104K RT but also requires almost $700 in taxes and fees when flying LOT and Swiss. Taxes and fees jump to over $1,100 when flying Lufthansa and Swiss
I’m trying to book a business class ticket through ANA from US to Europe – the mileage is a good value, I think, at (88K round trip) but its over $2000 in fees. Am I missing something? Any ideas how to get around this before I transfer my miles to ANA?
Talia – it looks like in the past few months (since this post was written), ANA has started charging a lot more fuel surcharges. Your only hope to minimize them is based on which airlines you’re picking, but your minimum is now at least $600 p/p or so unfortunately 🙁
Hey Dan, any chance you could do a follow-up to this post which has all the numbers for the new higher YQ that is being passed on?
Hi Dan, thanks for posting this incredibly insightful article. Am I a victim of these much higher surcharges in recent months? I just attempted to book an ANA RTW award flight Tel Aviv-Addis Ababa on Ethiopian//Addis Ababa to Mumbai on Ethiopian//Mumbai to Bangkok on Thai//Bangkok to Hong Kong on Thai// Hong King to Beijing on Air China//Beijing to Tokyo on ANA//Tokyo to EWR on United//EWR to Tel Aviv on United and I was shocked to be charged 174,000 yen in taxes and fees. Any insight into how I can reduce this/what I did wrong? Thanks in advance…
Unfortunately there isn’t a ton that you can do – the fuel surcharges are just higher now 🙁
But does $1400 per ticket seem right for this itinerary? Looks almost like an error!? Or am I totally off base?
From what I understand, fuel surcharges in excess of $1,000 are definitely not unheard of for RTW ANA tickets.