Region of Waterloo International Airport - YKF

[tomh009]

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.)

Sorry, I think I wasn't clear on this.  I was referring to revenue (paid) tickets, not reward ones.  The proportion of tickets (on AC) that include a surcharge is down, and where there are surcharges, it's usually smaller than before.

Note that this doesn't mean that the tickets are any less expensive; what matters is the total cost of the ticket, including the base fare and the surcharges and any other fees (and which is what the airlines now need to advertise).  The surcharges originates mostly from airlines gaming the advertised prices, showing base fares in ads (not including surcharges or taxes), this way they could advertise "lower prices" without actually lowering them.  Fortunately this practice is now illegal, and airlines need to show the all-in prices.