Originally Posted by
siankaan1
I talked to the travel agent last night, she says AA added a fuel surcharge after the fact. I expect that's BS. She then asked whether my daughter wanted to change flights...she sounded disappointed when I said no. My daughter clarified that it's the TA who's being difficult, not AA, so I withdraw my "bullying" remark about AA. I'll get AA to enter a comment in the record that my daughter is allowed to board without paying the $320, this is obviously between AA and the TA. Apparently they underpriced all 10-12 students from the university, so it's starting to add up as a big cost for them.
Oh ho! I think I know EXACTLY what happened! I made that very mistake during one of my first AA groups to Latin America! Look at this:
Code:
FXL
01 P1
LOWEST PRICE IS AVAILABLE
LAST TKT DTE 21OCT10 - SEE ADV PURCHASE
------------------------------------------------------------
AL FLGT BK DATE TIME FARE BASIS NVB NVA BG
STL
XDFW AA 1452 V * 15NOV 1745 VLX1MCL 2P
SCL AA 0945 V * 15NOV 2110 VLX1MCL 2P
XDFW AA 0940 V * 25NOV 2250 VLX1MCL 19NOV 2P
STL AA 1056 V * 26NOV 0800 VLX1MCL 19NOV 2P
USD 1235.00 15NOV10STL AA X/DFW AA SCL Q175.00 M440.00
VLX1MCL AA X/DFW Q179.80AA STL M440.00VLX1
USD 5.50YC MCL NUC1234.80END ROE1.000000
USD 16.10US XT USD 16.10US USD 5.00XA USD 7.00XY USD
USD 79.10XT 7.50AY USD 30.00ZQ USD 13.50XF STL4.50DFW
USD 1335.70 4.50DFW4.50
PRICED WITH VALIDATING CARRIER AA - REPRICE IF DIFFERENT VC
TICKETS ARE NON-REFUNDABLE
> PAGE 2/ 3
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FYI:
Q = fuel surcharge in base fare
YQ = fuel surcharge in taxes
The above is the detailed pricing for a published fare from STL to SCL on AA. See that base fare amount of $1235? The AA group desk quotes base fares without the Qs in the base. See the fare calc line to the right of the base fare? Notice the "Q175.00 M440.00 VLX1MCL" and "Q179.80AA STL M440.00VLX1MCL" parts. The outbound base fare amounts are $440 each way. The outbound Q is $175 and the inbound Q is $179.80. $440 + $440 + $175 + $180 = $1235.
All the different taxes are very complicated:
Code:
FARE F USD 1235.00
TX001 X USD 5.50YCAE TX002 X USD 16.10USAP TX003 X USD 16.10USAS
TX004 X USD 5.00XACO TX005 X USD 7.00XYCR TX006 X USD 7.50AYSE
TX007 X USD 30.00ZQAD TX008 X USD 13.50XF
TOTAL USD 1335.70
GRAND TOTAL USD 1335.70
In this case, there are eight different types of taxes.
The way we get taxes is by autostoring a published fare and then modifying the stored fare to conform to the discounted group fare we negotiated with the AA group department. If you don't understand how Qs work (and AA is one of the few airlines that uses Qs instead of YQs) or forget, you autostore the published fare, slap in the group base fare, and forget to add the Qs. Very easy to do. I'm quite sympathetic to this TA. But it's not a mistake you'll EVER make twice.
Fortunately in my case, I caught the mistake before ticketing (and so it was a misquote rather than a misticketing) and it resulted in us rebating all the commission and our service fee and running the tickets at cost. The price was still about $100 higher than originally quoted, but we had said (and always say) that prices are not guaranteed until ticketing, so we didn't feel obligated to absorb $1000-2000 just to get them a steal of a deal. The post-Q-adjustment price (with our commission rebate and no service fees) ($360ish IND-SAL) was still $200 lower than the best otherwise available.