Region of Waterloo International Airport - YKF

[ookpik]

The surcharges are much less common than a few years ago

Could you please provide some objective proof of this. Which airlines don't apply surcharges on freereward tickets? (Anecdotally I don't see it. The surcharges are as common today as they were in the past several years.)

but in any case it appears that they have been renamed "carrier surcharges" for AC, at least.

Which is exactly the point of the article and my comments. This despite fuel prices being at record lows. At one time these surcharges reflected rising oil prices. Now that this is no longer a valid justification they're being used to gouge customers.

Aeroplan flights aren't "free" (nor are they advertised as such), same applies to other FF programs.

As a member of Aeroplan  and AAdvantage almost since their inception I can tell you that they were once widely advertised as free flights. Of course the airlines no longer use the word "free" in their promotions. But the implication is still there even if the adjective is now "reward" or some similar euphemism.

Sadly the availability is much less and the fees are much higher than, say, 10 years ago.

That too.