airline taxes and fees on milage awards, AA in particular

[ncp]

Can anyone explain the mystery of how they come up with the fees they charge? I'm trying to use miles to book a trip to Italy via the UK and our outbound flights (for 2) are going to cost us a total of $11.20 out of pocket. The return, however, I can't seem to find for under $757.00! I used to think a lot was charged by going through LHR but now I don't know. I thought the $11.20 was pretty amazing, having paid between 200-600 in the past, so I'm trying to figure out how I scored such a great deal and trying to find something similar on the return.

thanks!

 

[Andrew]

I'm presuming that the return flights are operated by British Airways. Their policy is that the "carrier-imposed surcharge" (formerly called the fuel surcharge, but now it isn't tied to the price of fuel) is charged on award tickets. For going on American Airlines miles, try to find flights that aren't on BA, but for reasons you can see, it's the BA flights where the award travel stays available. Iberia flights, with much lower surcharges, don't show on aa.com ; you can look into them by signing up for BA's program. Once you're a member, you can search on ba.com for award travel ("book with Avios") on Iberia flights, and phone AA to book them. You may need to search one segment at a time: your Italian departure airport to Madrid, and Madrid to a U.S. gateway.

 

[Colo]

The secret with AA is to find flights departing the US on AA. For example we just book from Richmond VA to London via Charlotte and return Amsterdam to Richmond on AA for 45,ooo miles and & $52 per ticket. Since Basel Switzerland is our destination for a river cruise, I bought one way tickets from LHR to Basel for 57 Pounds per ticket on British Airways. British Airways is very reasonable once you get to Europe.

The same flight leaving Dulles in DC would have cost me the same miles, but $1,100.oo in fees. I can hang for a couple hours in Charlotte for a $1000.00. Since Richmond and Dulles are the exact same miles from my house it became a no brainer.

Bottom line when using FF Miles on AA. Start in a destination that route is covered by AA for the best deal. If you are insistent on a non-stop from the airport closes to you it can be difficult to use miles. Happy Hunting.

 

[Andrew]

But note that British Airways are reconfiguring their intra-Europe planes to have less leg room than Ryanair. The converse of Colo's suggestion, for ncp who's asking about the return trip, is to depart from an Italian airport served by American's own flights, which would be Rome or Milan. Milan MXP would probably have the best availablity: their AA flights are to New York JFK or Miami.

 

[Cameron]

I've encountered this tax issue on AA. I've been a member for 20 years. Everyone above is correct about using miles on British Airways.

Connecting for the overnight leg in Charlotte and Philadephia , previously US Air main hubs, tend to offer flights with the lowest taxes when using FF miles to Europe.

Regarding taxes (and an unusually good deal) -- I'm returning to Paris in June and didn't have enough miles for a business class ticket. "My" apartment in Paris isn't available for my first six nights, so I looked into American Airlines Vacations. I couldn't believe my luck that I've booked a business class ticket, six nights in a four-star hotel, then five nights with no hotel (I'll be in the apartment) -- all for LESS than buying a business class ticket alone. That said, I noticed that my taxes were more than 50% of the cost, so I called American. The rep on the phone couldn't get the same deal I had -- it was TWICE the price I had on my computer, ready to purchase. I don't know if I fell into some quirky hole that gave me that great deal, but I took it!

 

[Colo]

NCP here is a link to AA Destination Map http://aa.fltmaps.com/en
It allows you to play the game of where they go and fairly easily.

As Andrew suggested, I did get a great deal out of MXP to IAD with Miles about 4 years ago.
In fact we left IAD and flew into Pisa (via CDG) and out of MXP non-stop.
I paid for mine and used miles for my wife.

 

[Sharon J]

I've encountered this tax issue on AA. I've been a member for 20 years. Everyone above is correct about using miles on British Airways.

Connecting for the overnight leg in Charlotte and Philadephia , previously US Air main hubs, tend to offer flights with the lowest taxes when using FF miles to Europe.

Regarding taxes (and an unusually good deal) -- I'm returning to Paris in June and didn't have enough miles for a business class ticket. "My" apartment in Paris isn't available for my first six nights, so I looked into American Airlines Vacations. I couldn't believe my luck that I've booked a business class ticket, six nights in a four-star hotel, then five nights with no hotel (I'll be in the apartment) -- all for LESS than buying a business class ticket alone. That said, I noticed that my taxes were more than 50% of the cost, so I called American. The rep on the phone couldn't get the same deal I had -- it was TWICE the price I had on my computer, ready to purchase. I don't know if I fell into some quirky hole that gave me that great deal, but I took it!

 

[Sharon J]

Thank you for this thread ncp. Even though we always fly Delta/Air France, this has given me a lot of useful information. I'm assuming you saw my post about what happened with a trip I have planned for this September. Savannah/NYC/CDG. I always check prices along the way, because I book so far out. We upgraded to Comfort Plus, and the tickets for two were over $5,000, ugh! We do have one leg from CDG to Toulouse on the outbound. I checked last month, and each ticket had dropped over $600+ per person. That was including the $300 change fee per ticket. The only reason for the reduction was they changed the flight number from an Air France number to a Delta number, same plane, same seats......amazing!!! Lesson learned. Always check that when making reservations.

There are so many seasoned travelers on this board, and so much information to learn from all of them. All the information here has given me many more things to check on when making reservations. Thanks everyone.

 

[Andrew]

For paid trips like Sharon's, you can sign up with www.yapta.com , say what you've booked, and they say they'll report if the fare goes down so much that it's worth rebooking even with a change fee.

 

[ncp]

Thanks everyone! I've played this game in the past too but it seems the rules have changed a bit. Even the all AA flights from Europe to the US had high taxes but I wasn't able to see any that didn't connect through LHR, which I think plays a part. I'll try now the segment by segment search (thanks Andrew and Colo). I remember several years ago going thru Madrid and saving on taxes that way. I've also been search for two pairs of one way tickets (we're spending several weeks in the UK then on to Italy) rather than 2 round trips and I wonder if the results would be different with that kind of search. Onward..... I'll keep you posted.

 

[Colo]

I did the multi-city approach and then searched from IAD, DCA, BWI, and RIC. The smallest airport offered the best deal. I knew I could not get a non-stop to Basel so it just did not matter where entered Europe.

Please let us know how it works out for you.

 

[Andrew]

All AA awards are really one-ways, although they can be searched as round trips. I don't know your itinerary or dates, but I tried searching FCO-NYC one-way for one person on a low season date with lots of results, and got these tax and fee quotes:

All BA via LHR: $268
BA to LHR, then AA: $138
Air Berlin: $69
All AA via PHL: $67
AA FCO-PHL: $61

 

[ncp]

Thanks Andrew, knowing they are all essentially one-ways helps. I'm trying to line up either FCO or MXP to SMF (Sacramento) right at the end of September, very early October, business class, and there's almost no availability. Maybe they've not released those seats yet or others have snapped them up and may cancel. I tried searching the BA website looking for Iberia flights as you suggested and came up with nothing available for weeks and weeks. Maybe I'm looking too far out.

 

[Andrew]

I expect that wanting Business Class, to the West Coast, and a less major airport, makes it difficult. Some people say that, when looking for an award, it's worthwhile to pay for Expert Flyer, which watches and sends alerts for award seats opening up.

I see some options with your parameters to San Francisco: BA to London, then AA via JFK, fees at $156 per person.

 

[ncp]

Thanks everyone for the input. I ended up going ahead with a return that cost me $750 roughly in taxes and fees but the flights were much better than I'd seen after checking several times a day for more than a week. Will continue to check from time to time in case anything opens up. At least our outbound flights were almost free!