Wow AAgent gets ANGRY when you call YQ a fuel surcharge
 

I was just on with an AA international award agent. I had to move a date (on a BA flight) which resulted in ~ $500 in extra charges. I had to complain and she kept saying "it is taxes we didn't charge before, now we have to charge these taxes".

I'd try to explain these aren't taxes, they are fuel surcharges and she'd get very very mad. She ranted about how these don't result in any extra income to American Airlines.... I again tried to correct her but wow she got MAD.

In business it is usually illegal to call something a "tax" when it is not a genuine tax. Isn't there a lawyer on this board who is looking for some extra work?

Wouldn't take more than a couple recorded phone calls to make your case :)

Perhaps you should consult a lawyer about wiretapping laws.

Just sayin'

NWAMileageSlave, Esq.

But she is correct in that this particular surcharge doesn't add to AA's revenue, right? Doesn't it just go straight to BA?

Nah, it must create revenue for AA one way or another. I would bet the house on that.

That would certainly seem logical, but I am not sure it is the definitive answer.

There has been discussion in the " Trick It " thread that the YQ is kept by the carrier issuing the ticket.

I thought these charges were Europe specific, like a luxury tax if in a premium cabin? Would you have had to pay these same charges flying out of Asia?

How much is your house worth? ;)

But yeah, she shouldn't have gotten mad.

Sounds like the AAgent was having a bad day, but regardless of whether AA gets a sou out of this or not, it is indeed a fuel surcharge (albeit imposed by BA).

(Here I thought AA was announcing new flights to Madrid...;) )

You didn't have to complain especially given that you knew exactly what these charges were, you just wanted and chose to

It would seem that it cannot be illegal to call these a tax in the US given that other fees that are not taxes are classified as taxes such as airport fees ( not a tax , just a fee paid to the airport )

In one sense, I am sympathetic to the OP: as the ticket seems already to have been issued for some time (from before YQ were collected on AA-issued awards), now being asked to pay the YQ for a simple date change seems a bit over the top.

If YQ is called a tax, a charge, a fee or an insult, the fact remains that under the current policy, AA will collect it on all BA-operated award flights. The more troubling point in all this is that the change in YQ collection policy seems to be retroactive, making the dates/times of BA-operated award reservations very expensive to change.

If there were anything to complain about, I'd say it was this post-facto limitation of flexibility.

Your continual yanking of the AAgent's chain would be justified if she set the policy. Complaining to someone who has no power whatsoever to change what you are complaining about is an exercise in futility.

Perhaps you should look up wiretapping. That's not the same as recording a conversation, and in some places (like where I live) there's single-party consent, meaning as long as I know it's being recorded, I can record it.

Agree, that's what would have burned me up the most in OP's situation. The whole YQ situation stinks, but at least going forward we're aware of it at this point and can try to plan accordingly. It's quite slap in the face to be hit with a huge upcharge for a mere date change. Would be nice if AA would exempt bookings made prior to the YQ implementation in situations like this.

They are not applying the change retrospectively. Any existing bookings are fine, it is only when there is a ticket being issued or reissued that the new calculations apply. A retrospective change would be , I would suggest, when the UK APD changed and AA (unlike airlines like BA which absorbed the cost themselves) was collecting the additional taxes at the airport for tickets that had been issued in advance of the increase

Quickly looking at the title, I saw MAD (in caps) and thought it had something to do with Madrid. Too many three letter airport codes in my mind....

Not only that, since AAs' call prompt advises that your call may be recorded you are explicitly allowed to tape your conversation with the agent.

* AA customers are advised on our call prompt that their call may be recorded for quality assurance.

Should a customer request to tape-record your conversation, you must allow them to do so.