Originally Posted by
hillrider
Completely understand the OP's point of view: If AA states that UM fee is $75, but then charges you another unavoidable booking fee, then it's a deceptive practice: the fee should be inclusive of the method of reservation that is necessary.
It's like Safeway advertising milk costing $2/gallon, and finding at check-out that there's a cashier fee of $1 and there's no other way of buying milk but by using the cashier and its fee. This is exaclty what the OP found out.
http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/problems.htm
I don't disagree and understand the OP's point of view as it relates to the fee. I think it's bad business practice to charge consumers a fee for booking something over the phone that the website can't handle.
Years ago, AA (and other airlines) did everything they could to entice passengers to use the website (i.e., online booking bonuses). Now that consumers are accustomed to doing so, we shouldn't be penalized when the website can't handle the transaction.
However, I don't know that the OP was charged anything in addition to the $75 fee, since there hasn't been a follow up. Perhaps the $75 is all inclusive of the phone fee.
My post was only a reaction to the OP's first question... "AA.com states that I need to call...Is this the case?"