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booking-guidance

Step-by-step guidance for booking award flights. Covers the hold-before-transfer rule, phone numbers for major programs, and partner award booking workflows.

plugins/travel-hacking-toolkit/skills/booking-guidance/SKILL.md

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# Booking Guidance

Finding the deal is half the battle. Telling the user how to actually book it is the other half. **Every recommendation should include a booking path.**

**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 ⚠<U+FE0F> 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. |