Originally Posted by
potfish
I have just had the pricing back on a DONE3 starting from Budapest, quoted in USD because the AA agent said that it had to be quoted in the intended credit card's issuing country's currency.
The quote was $5,453 for each of two adults, $4,090 for a child for the base, but the additional charges are more than I expected. All of the various country charges were expected, having read to expect 10-15%, but what is the large "CARRIER-IMPOSED FEES"? Multiply it by three passengers and it's a very large unexpected amount.
Any chance I might get a different amount if I called a different Oneworld airline?
The carrier-imposed fees (formerly called fuel surcharges), are simply overcharges that airlines add to their tickets. These are added to most international itineraries. From an airline's perspective, such "greed fees" are attractive because they don't alter the fare, meaning that their prices might look better in a price comparison listing, but crucially they are also excluded from most corporate and other discounts.
For normal itineraries, the fuel surcharges can usually be found in the fare rules. For example, the fare rules for a discount business class fare between the U.S. and Europe might include text such as "Charge $750 for each transatlantic segment." I don't know how RTW pricing systems determine the amount of these surcharges, but I do know from experience that BA flights are some of the worst, and over-the-water AA flights can be not far behind. I purchased an ex-ARN DONE5 just before the pandemic and was shocked at how low the taxes and fees were. I substituted QR and DOH for BA/AA and LHR and saved a lot.