I tried HUCA and no luck....they even said that they already see I escalated this issue and am not going to get a different answer.

I checked the YQ for a revenue ticket and it's showing as a similar amount to what AE is asking for on the phone.

If I try to make a one-way award with AE including the LH flight and all other segments for that portion of the ticket it is showing as I would expect...with no YQ, and total taxes $80.

But presenting all this info to the supervisor is just met with a "sir the system calculates automatically and if it's different from the website it's because the website is wrong".

dealing with AE is depressing

And I genuinely consider this to be a scam. Quoting one price on the website, not having proper functionality to book, trying to make you pay $30 to book over the phone, and then slapping extra $300 on top that they can't even explain.