I had a similar experience. 3% foreign transaction fee on my USD purchase on britishairways.com. I called Citibank first and they asked me to talk to the airline. I talked to the airline – they say it is the bank that charges it and they have nothing to do with it. When I found this post, I called Citibank again and was told that they can’t do anything about. I talked to the supervisor who was trying to talk me into accepting the charge. I gave them 2 options – either waive the fee or close the account. The supervisor talked to her manager and they waived the fee as a one time exception.