So to continue the saga, I changed my routing to mimick my original routing and lo and behold it still doesn't add up, my refund is even less than the original upcharge. No airport taxes have changed since I bought the ticket and you cannot have a fare change in the middle of a trip. Btw, I am also accounting for the change fee.

It only leads me to one conclusion AA is full of Sh*t and they are not to be trusted on calculating anything. Also plausible AA is throwing carrier charges on anything they want. At least with BA you know the game.

Both customer relations and the EXP desk said you are on your own with the price desk, they cannot do or say anything to them. Well, Doug and Karen are about to get some nice words and DOT will have something to deal ponder.