Taxes and carrier-imposed fees - EXORBITANT!

Old Jun 12th, 2014, 03:33 PM
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Taxes and carrier-imposed fees - EXORBITANT!

Trying to book tickets from US to Italy for travel in October using AA miles. I found flights that I liked, even the return flight at a lesser mileage award. I was FLABBERGASTED when I was about the hit the "purchase" button and saw that the Taxes and Carrier-imposed Fees totaled $1,457.40!!!! Granted 3 travelers, but OH MY GOSH!

Really? This seems a bit high to me.
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Old Jun 12th, 2014, 03:42 PM
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i just calculated paying for the trip and the full fare for 3 is $3916!
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Old Jun 12th, 2014, 03:47 PM
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Are you flying through London on British Air? BA has the highest surcharges in the business. If you can fly on AA metal your price will be much less. Read some of the many threads here about this to figure out how to avoid the worse of the fees.
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Old Jun 12th, 2014, 03:49 PM
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Not sure I understand. Are you talking about taxes on a FF ticket? The majority of that is often the airline or airport (London is very high departure tax and British Airways is very high). It this an actuall AA flight or a codeshare? People can't help you if you don't post details (dates/airports).
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Old Jun 12th, 2014, 06:59 PM
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AA's only year-round destination of its own is Milan. Rome is seasonal. Where in Italy are you going? If you could find FF tickets to MXP (not a guarantee you can do that), you could avoid BA and London and those fees. Italy's high-speed train service is good and will not cost almost $4,000.
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Old Jun 12th, 2014, 08:38 PM
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The flights do go through Heathrow on AA then BA and on to MXP (Milan). The most expensive fee is "Carrier-imposed Fee" at $290.00 USD/pp!!! Then there is a Passenger Service Charge of $95.90 USD/pp (UK); and a "Transportation Tax" of $35 USD/pp.
Everything else is less than $10, but for 3 that adds up.

What do you suggest? Avoiding the UK? I don't think I can get direct (on miles) to Milan from DFW. I'll have to check tomorrow.

Thanks for the input on UK's surcharges.
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Old Jun 13th, 2014, 06:25 AM
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It's a "fuel surcharge" that is presently the subject of a lawsuit against British Airways in US federal court. (Don't hold your breath.)

BA levies this charge on all award tickets, and AA passes it through on award tickets using AAdvantage miles. And since AA flies on its own "metal" to relatively few European destinations, it relies on BA to make the final connection past Heathrow. And BA, on the other hand, makes relatively more seats available for mileage redemptions, since it manages to extract all those "fuel surcharge" dollars/pounds/Euros for seats it "awards."

The solution on award bookings using AA miles is simple - don't fly on British Airways.

Even if you fly on AA to Heathrow and purchase a conventional ticket from LHR to your onward European destination, you'll likely be hundreds of dollars ahead compared to paying BA's "fuel fines" for a "free" trip.

When planning flights, look at AA-operated flights to London, which are relatively numerous, or look for flights operated by partners Airberlin, Iberia, or Finnair. Also look for flights operated by US Airways, which are still marketed separately while the merger with AA moves along. US flies to many cities in Europe out of Philly or Charlotte.

Iberia is owned by the same company that owns BA, but for the moment at least their fuel fines aren't as steep; Airberlin is a low-cost airline that runs a number of transatlantic routes, and Finnair is a quality airline with limited transatlantic service but a good European network. To see Iberia availability you'll need to phone AA.

Go back to the award page on AA.com and you'll see a listing of airlines to the left of the flights shown as available. Un-check the British Airways box. By doing so and then picking AA plus Airberlin flights (e.g. DFW-xORD-xDUS-MXP) you'll see the "taxes and carrier fees" number drop from, say, $330 to something under $20.
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Old Jun 13th, 2014, 12:15 PM
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Thank you so much Gardyloo. I was curious about Iberia and Airberlin - I unchecked their boxes because I wasn't familiar with them.

Back to the drawing board!
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Old Jun 14th, 2014, 01:09 PM
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I was in the same situation trying to get SMF-CPH. I did not want to fly BA. After searching every which way, I ended up booking US and Air Berlin with my AA miles. Taxes were about $10 for each ticket! Remember if you call AA rather than book online, AA will charge you a fee (think it is about $35) to do so.
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Old Jun 15th, 2014, 09:36 AM
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When I use FF ticket on AA I always uncheck the BA box and do my best to avoid BA. It's not so bad if you can get across the Atlantic w/o BA then use BA for intra-Europe flights. I don't think award tickets on Iberia can be booked on line so be sure to call AA and ask if those are available. They will charge you $25 for a phone booking but it still beats the heck out of BA's fees.

What really stinks for me is that BA is now operating non-stop fights to LHR from Austin so I am passing by a lot of really great schedules in order to avoid BA.
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Old Jun 15th, 2014, 10:35 AM
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Just a quick cursory search -- taking out BA really adds to flight times, number of stops and extremely long layovers!!!

Using AA to get to Europe, but then BA and the fees kick in.

Whew -- more research today.
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Old Jun 15th, 2014, 10:54 AM
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i had to chuckle -- checking Travelocity for ONE WAY from Milan to London, it came up with airfare of $148 / pp. THought that wasn't a bad price -- certainly much better than $1,200+ for BA's taxes and fees. It does, however, go to Dusseldorf on Air Berlin, then to London on BA.

Well, the breakdown is as follows:

flight - $8.00
taxes and fees - $140.00

makes perfect sense to me - how 'bout you???
NOT
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Old Jun 16th, 2014, 12:40 AM
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BA should be taken into court over their deceptive marketing practices. If not against the law, they have the honesty and scruples of a con artist.

regards - tom
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Old Jun 16th, 2014, 05:43 AM
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They are being sued but that can be a long process.
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Old Jun 16th, 2014, 06:46 AM
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I think I might have to bite the bullet and book BA anyway. There is no other real options. Not booking BA will extend travel time significantly (and this isn't a long trip), and we're getting down to the wire for availability (I like to book way ahead).
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Old Jun 16th, 2014, 12:00 PM
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I avoid BA for that reason, don't like them, I"ve known that for a long time. But I don't get your beef about the fees and taxes costing more than the $18 ticket recently? Would you prefer that the ticket cost more or what? Airports and govts and airports levy fees and taxes, that's just the way it is. There is a minimum to expect of those kind of fees, after all, especially when you are dealing with London. That ticket price isn't bad at all, so I wouldn't complain (US$140). There aren't too many tickets you could get in the US for that price one-way for that distance.

Besides, you can get one-way fares to London on cheaper airlines than BA, if you want, such as Easyjet or Ryanair. Easyjet has direct flights to LGW for only about 40-60 euro around 4 pm. I like Easyjet a lot. There are some minor extra fees for using a credit card and about 17 euro if you check a bag, but it's still a very good fare and direct. You can book Ryanair for only 28 euro to Stansted from Milan but they are more basic and have more add-ons, I think.
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Old Jun 16th, 2014, 01:55 PM
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Jill, keep an eye on the web site as something better might come up and if that happens they will refund the difference in your fees. I just did it earlier this year.
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Old Jun 16th, 2014, 02:12 PM
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Christina - What the "beef" is, is how can the ticket cost ONLY $8, but the fees and taxes are $140. Would make more sense to me (I know it is all the same in the end) is the ticket cost to be $140 with taxes and fees of $8. All-in-all it's the same price, but …

P_M - will do.

Thanks!
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Old Jun 16th, 2014, 02:31 PM
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I would be reluctant to take Ryanair or Easyjet in conjunction with the BA flight. Having separate tickets will not give any protection in the case that the BA flight is late and you miss the Ryanair or Easyjet connection to Italy or if there are issues on the FR/U2 flights back from Italy and you miss the BA flight back home. Stansted is in the back and beyond, although Gatwick is not too bad a transfer from Heathrow, depending on day/time as the traffic can be very heavy.
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Old Sep 30th, 2014, 02:00 AM
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Clearly, BA recognizes that it's on shaky ground with "fuel surcharge" as it no longer uses that term. You now have to pay a "Carrier imposed charge", which can be anything they want it to be!
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