Originally Posted by
WindowSeatFlyer
What's going on with the taxes/fees calculations for roundtrip award travel?
Why would the roundtrip taxes and fees be much higher than two one-ways for the exact same flights?
(I'm aware of BA's high fee ($700) for US-Europe award flights when flying BA across the Atlantic; that's not what I'm complaining about. I can get around that by booking a one-way outbound trip that avoids BA)
Example 1:
One-way business class US-Sweden on AA and AY: $5.60 in taxes and fees (no "OTHER TAXES & CARRIER-IMPOSED FEES")
One-way business class Sweden-US on BA and AA (BA across the Atlantic): $274 in taxes and fees ($126 in "OTHER TAXES & CARRIER-IMPOSED FEES")
Roundtrip business class US-Sweden-US on AA, AY and BA (BA across the Atlantic on the return), the exact same flights as the two one-ways: $883 in taxes and fees ($700 in "OTHER TAXES & CARRIER-IMPOSED FEES")
Example 2:
One-way business class US-Sweden on AA and BA (BA across the Atlantic): $756 in taxes and fees ($700 in "OTHER TAXES & CARRIER-IMPOSED FEES")
One-way business class Sweden-US on BA and AA (BA across the Atlantic): $274 in taxes and fees ($126 in "OTHER TAXES & CARRIER-IMPOSED FEES")
Roundtrip business class US-Sweden-US on AA and BA (BA across the Atlantic both ways), the exact same flights as the two one-ways: $1605 in taxes and fees ($1400 in "OTHER TAXES & CARRIER-IMPOSED FEES")
The BA fuel surcharges vary by country of departure, with the US having some of the highest while Sweden and Denmark have some of the lowest.
So when booking a roundtrip US-Sweden-US, you will be subject to the higher ex-US fuel surcharges even for the return segments since the PNR's first point of departure is the US.
But by splitting it to separate one-way PNR's, you would only be subject to the lower ex-Sweden fuel surcharges for the return segments since PNR #2 first point of departure is Sweden.
Make sense?