I’ve given up, as I’m sure most of you have, on pretty much every airline out there. The past decade has seen air travel go from a generally unremarkable and convenient mode of transportation to some cantankerous form of voluntary and expensive imprisonment. Wait, strike that, they still feed you in jail.

Today, in what is the latest in a never-ending string of new fees and surcharges, Delta Airlines announced plans to introduce a fee of up to $50 for booking award travel. At least they have the decency to wear their reasoning on their cuff. They’ve called it a “fuel surcharge.” The article in today’s New York Times states that the cost of jet fuel has gone up 83.6% in the last year. It’s no mystery that the airlines are drowning in the cost of fuel.

But, I still have a problem with it. Obviously every company has a right to make a profit, and certainly they have an obligation to not lose money. But reward travel is supposed to be a loyalty promise the company makes to their customers. But once you start chipping away at that promise piece by piece, it destroys it entirely.

Ten years ago I booked an award ticket from Portland to Hong Kong. I went to the Delta ticketing office downtown and booked the trip with a real person standing in front of me for a total of $13 in taxes. Last year I booked a Delta award ticket to the UK over the phone for something along the lines of $40. This year, when I was attempting to book Julie’s and my Delta award tickets over the phone, they wanted to charge me a $25 booking fee, $70 in taxes, $25 for using a partner airline, lord knows how much in baggage fees and, had we waited until August to book, an extra $50 in fuel fees. It probably would have been closer to $200 a ticket. I was able to deftly navigating the system and get that number down to $53 per ticket, but it took a tremendous amount of working through loopholes.

Now, I realize $200 is a fraction of what an international ticket would cost – but a lot of these fees don’t really change depending on how far you travel. The fees can easily add up to 30% the price of a short domestic return ticket. That’s pretty pathetic.

So I guess the days of airlines rewarding you for your loyalty are done. If you’re lucky enough to find an available award flight to your destination, it will probably never add up to more than a discount. The Times also suggested that Delta will unveil a new award ticket structure on top of all this.

Cash ‘em in while you can, folks, cause your miles will keep getting shorter every day.