Originally Posted by
84fiero
Yes I know I was referencing an AA flight from AA.com but it doesn't matter...the point is that the government-imposed taxes/fees - which is what you're paying - are the same for the same routing, regardless of carrier. (BAEC in other instances collects fuel surcharges on award redemptions, and some programs charge award booking fees, but things like that aren't at issue here.)
Keep in mind these are government fees and taxes and would only differ for children if the government imposes lesser fees for kids (which happens sometimes). The airline has no control over that. This is the breakout from BA.com and AA.com:
AIR PASSENGER DEPARTURE TAX (HONG KONG) $15.50 USD
US APHIS USER FEE (UNITED STATES) $3.96 USD
US FEDERAL INSPECTION FEE (UNITED STATES) $7.00 USD
US CUSTOMS USER FEE (UNITED STATES) $5.50 USD
G3RE $20.60 USD
If it were me I'd ask the AA agent to list the breakout of their $73 pp quote and compare. It's not unheard of for there to be errors in what phone agents are shown for taxes/fees (or even mileage amounts). There shouldn't be any phone booking fee with AA since CX awards can't be booked online - though the numbers don't add up for a phone booking fee X4 people, it does work out to two $40 fees (maybe for two adults? don't know - just guessing). But again agents have sometimes erroneously attempted to charge the fee despite current policy for awards not bookable on AA.com.
There was a thread a while back indicating that AAdvantage award tickets ex-HKG treat the HKG departure fee as "fare," not "tax." If that is the case, then a HKG-LAX award would no longer be considered a "free" ticket; that, in turn, would trigger some U.S. taxes/fees that do not apply to "free" tickets.
If BAEC classifies the HKG departure fee as a "tax," then that could explain the discrepancy in the total amount of taxes/fees on the two different redemptions.