This has very little relevance to those who buy tickets but a lot to those who redeem miles, specifically those who use British Airways Avios. This can be potentially bad news.

LAN has been one of the few partners that does not have a fuel surcharge as a separate item.  As a result, redeeming LAN flights with BA Avios is a good option relative to other BA partners where the fuel surcharge is usually high. LAN normally does have fuel surcharges for their domestic tickets, but it’s baked into the fare basis and not a separate line item.

While playing around with the Mexico City – Easter Island Business Class fare, we noticed that LAN included a fuel surcharge in their fare. When a carrier files a fare, the YQ or YR line item is the fuel surcharge. If you look at most international fares, the YQ/YR is a significant component of the fare. It is not a tax that the government collects, but rather something the airline sets and collects for themselves.

At the moment, this seems to be isolated to fares that originate and terminate in Mexico. Here’s one from Cancun to Lima.

The fuel surcharge is very small — about $1.50 USD. LAN got rid of their surcharges years ago. If LAN is re-instituting fuel surcharges, then this is bad news.

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