I'm wondering about "the correct price quoted in pounds". Could you see exactly how much fuel surcharge was added to the ticket? I ask because I had understood that much of that could be avoided by issuing the ticket via AA ticketing services at LHR, where they would have had no difficulty in processing US based credit cards.

I'm trying to understand whether the online tool, in addition to causing you literally hours of inconvenience (at the airport) due apparently to BA IT issues re credit cards also caused you to spend lots of [avoidable] money on surcharges.