Yep, the taxes and levies are horific. I paid over $2000 for my family of 5 to take OneWorld RTW awards (limited to 5 stopovers).

There are not all departure taxes. The fee includes things like A$10 Ansett level, Noise levies, passenger terminal/facilities charges, security levies etc. The Australian departure tax component is something like $38 (adults only, children not charged). I asked QF to break it down for me and there were something like 25 independent levies/charges/taxes included.

I would ask that they revise the amounts chrges in light of the current exchange rate. They have probably based any US charges on a 50c exchange rate instead of the current rate which is just a tad under 60c (59.8 at 9am today).

Also note that LHR fees are a killer if you an not just in transit, and the amount depends on the class of travel. I have ensured that my transits through LHR are all less than 24 hours, connecting to other places like Newcastle in Northern England. This dropped my tax by almost $60, and that is for economy - business or first class would have been double that!

But the airlines like to let you know the tax/levy component of the fare since they don't get to keep it. However, they do insist that you pay it at the time of ticketing and they have the use of your money for the period until they have to hand it over to the relevant authority. They can do quite well on the exchange rates and short-term money market.