Question:
I am trying to see availability using *A from ORD to TLV on April 7 and returning April 18th. I would rather fly on a domestic airline to save the taxes and all. When i use the ANA award tool and search by a single airline (such as continental), it keeps saying "*We are sorry to inform you that there are no applicable direct or connecting flights. (W_B43)" I assume that is because continental would not be operating all four legs of the trip (there is always a stopover from ORD to TLV). It seems that no matter how i go, ill end up on an international airline. It seems strange to me because there are so many flights daily from ORD to EWR or JFK on *A airlines and there are *A airlines that are domestic airlines that fly from NYC to TLV (at least i think there are).
I havent transferred my *wood points to ANA yet...is there any other way to go (transfer my points somewhere else) that i would have so many airlines to choose availability from and would have a better chance of getting a domestic airline and not have to pay as much taxes?
Continental has a very good Star Alliance search engine as well, have you tried theirs?
When searching for awards I always search for each leg separately.
There are at least 5 possible categories of airlines when it comes to fuel surcharges:
Category 1: Airlines that don't charge a fuel surcharge when you fly on them generally do not collect the surcharge on alliance airline travel even if they DO charge a surcharge.
Example: AA, CO, UA, US, and LAN.
Category 2: Airlines that DO charge a fuel surcharge when you fly on them, do collect the surcharge on alliance airline travel when the alliance carrier does collect a fuel surcharge, but don't collect the surcharge on alliance airline travel when the alliance carrier does not collect a fuel surcharge.
Example: ANA
Category 3: Airlines that DO charge a fuel surcharge when you fly on them, but never collect the surcharge on alliance airline travel.
Example: Air Canada
Category 4: Airlines that DO charge a fuel surcharge when you fly on them and DO collect the surcharge on alliance airline travel when the alliance carrier does not collect a fuel surcharge.
Example: Air France.
Category 5: Airlines that don't charge a fuel surcharge when you fly on them from specific countries:
Example: Delta (from Europe)
So you can transfer Starpoints to US and not pay any fuel surcharge even on Swiss, etc.
Air Canada only collects a fuel surcharge when flying on their own metal, but when booking Star Alliance awards I believe they do not collect the fuel surcharge. However Air Canada has a separate Star Alliance chart that makes tickets to Israel only a good rate when flying Air Canada.
My guess if that there are other Star carriers that have a similar policy to Air Canada though...
I know SAS just recently dropped the fuel surcharge on all their flights, no idea which category they fall under.
What we really need to do is categorize other foreign carriers into each of these categories. Anyone want to volunteer?