Skip to content

booking-guidance: add per-program fee profiles before booking flow #15

New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Merged
borski merged 2 commits into from
Jul 12, 2026
Merged

booking-guidance: add per-program fee profiles before booking flow #15

Changes from all commits
Commits
Show all changes
2 commits
Select commit Hold shift + click to select a range
ec3e261
booking-guidance: add per-program fee profiles before booking flow
BarnNorth May 26, 2026
a15f8e4
booking-guidance: correct surcharge facts, make fees cabin-aware, exp…
borski Jul 12, 2026
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
25 changes: 25 additions & 0 deletions plugins/travel-hacking-toolkit/skills/booking-guidance/SKILL.md
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -11,6 +11,31 @@ Finding the deal is half the battle. Telling the user how to actually book it is

**Reference data:** `data/alliances.json` has booking details for major programs in `key_booking_relationships`.

## Program Fee Profiles

**Check this before recommending a transfer or locking in a departure city.** Fees vary dramatically by program and origin airport and can add $100-700+ per person on top of the miles cost. Two things to keep in mind reading the table: (1) several programs are surcharge-free on their own metal and most partners but pass heavy surcharges on *specific* partners (notably British Airways metal) — the YQ column calls those out; (2) dollar figures are per direction and **scale with cabin** — economy surcharges are materially lower than the business-class figures shown for surcharge-heavy metal. Rows marked ⚠️ are high-surcharge programs that often lose to cash.

| Program | YQ Surcharge? | Typical fees/pp | Notes |
|---------|--------------|-----------------|-------|
| Aeroplan (Air Canada) | No | $50-100 | No YQ pass-through on Star Alliance partners. Low fees. Best for LH/LX/UA awards. |
| Flying Blue (AF/KLM) | Yes | ~$250-400/way economy, ~$489-600/way business, ex-CDG | AF passes full fuel surcharge; France adds heavy departure tax. Worst from Paris. |
| United MileagePlus | No | $50-100 | No YQ on most partners. |
| Virgin Atlantic | Yes (on VS metal) | Cabin-dependent: ~$150-300/way economy, ~$500-700/way Upper Class; low on Delta metal | Surcharges scale with cabin. Delta metal carries surcharges US↔UK specifically. |
| Turkish Miles & Smiles | No on UA/Turkish metal; YES on Lufthansa Group (LH/LX/OS/SN) | $20-50 (own/UA metal) | Extremely low on own/UA metal. Book by phone (online unreliable). Dec 2025 devaluation. |
| British Airways Avios | Yes | ~$200-400/way economy, ~$400-700/way business, BA long-haul metal | Notorious surcharges on BA metal. Use short-haul, or partner metal (AA/Alaska/Qatar), instead. |
| American AAdvantage | No on own metal + most partners; YES on British Airways & Iberia | $50-75 base; on BA/IB metal ~$200-400/way economy to $400-700+/way business | Surcharge-free on JAL/Cathay/Qatar. Route partner awards away from BA/Iberia metal. |
| Alaska / Atmos Rewards | No on own metal + most partners; YES on British Airways, Icelandair, Hainan | $25-75 base; on BA metal ~$150-400/way economy up to ~$1,000/way premium | Renamed from Mileage Plan (Aug 2025). Surcharge-free on Cathay/JAL/Qantas/Condor/Fiji. |
| Avianca LifeMiles | No | ~$25/ticket | No-YQ Star Alliance program. Predictable total even on ANA/Lufthansa/Swiss metal. |
| Iberia Plus (Avios) | Low (far less than BA) | ~$150-200 RT transatlantic business | The transatlantic Avios sweet spot: MAD-US business ~40.5K-59K Avios/way with modest surcharges. |
| JAL Mileage Bank | No on JAL metal | from ~$20 | Cheap distance-based partner chart. Partner metal (e.g. BA) may add YQ. |
| Qatar Privilege Club (Avios) | No fuel surcharge on Qatar metal | ~$30-100 per-segment fee | Excellent Qsuites value. Per-segment cash fee returned in 2025. |
| Delta SkyMiles | No | No award fees | Dynamic award pricing is the real cost, not fees. |
| ⚠️ ANA Mileage Club | Yes — heavy | ~$95-185/way US-Japan YQ | Round-trip booking only; no awards within 96h of departure. |
| ⚠️ Cathay / Asia Miles | Yes | High on long-haul; hiked again in 2026 | Passes full carrier-imposed surcharges. |
| ⚠️ Emirates Skywards | Yes — heavy | Among the highest YQ of any program | Surcharges often kill the redemption vs cash. |

**Key rule:** If the trip ends in Paris or London, or routes on Air France / BA / Virgin / Emirates metal, factor $300-700/pp *per direction* in fees before comparing programs. A 40K Flying Blue award from CDG often costs more in cash fees than a 50K Aeroplan award from FRA. When a program passes surcharges only on *specific* partners (AA/Alaska on BA metal, Turkish on Lufthansa Group), route around that metal to keep fees low.

## General Booking Flow

1. **Find availability** (Seats.aero, airline website, or MCP tool)
Expand Down
Loading