Hello all,

Just had a most frustrating experience with AA re-issuing an LONE5 into an LONE6. I won't get into all the details now, but there was one aspect of the story which I found particularly troubling:

As originally issued, my ticket contained a AA-coded sector JFK-HKG (obviously operated by CX). At the time of re-issue, however, the rate-desk specifically instructed the ticket agent to change this reservation for the CX-coded flight. (which I only noticed after re-ticketing, and had changed immediately back to the AA flight number).

The problem is that when the new fare calculation came back, in addition to the expected fare difference, it also included a significant increase in taxes/fees, which I gather is almost exclusively due to additional YQ charges. As the AA ticket agent didn't have access to the tax calculation (how this is possible, I'll never know), it was impossible for me to know which sectors attracted the YQ charge.

My suspicion, however, is that the rate-desk had the marketing carrier changed from AA to CX, in order to collect the CX fuel surcharge. If that's what happend, it's a particularly nasty trick, and one to which I'll object vociferously in a letter to AA. However, it's possible that I'm off on this... as the reroute also added some QF sectors, it's possible that the YQ surcharges are connected to those flights instead, and the CX-flight number is just a red herring.

So, my specific questions:

1) Do any of you know for which carriers and under what circumstances(operating, marketing, or other) does AA collect YQ charges on RTW tickets?

2) Is there any other reason you can think of why the rate-desk would insist on changing an AA-codeshare flight for a CX-coded flight?

Thanks much in advance,

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