AeroWesty

I was thinking that was true too, until I opened this page on AA's site earlier this week. Look at the URL and page title. (At least they disclose there are fees for the freebies.)

DBCme

Sad truth is all I ever hear about BA is how steep their fees to book award travel are on.

This reality blinds me to anything positive they may offer, in soft or hard product.

A shame that is how me and others know them.

NPF

The whole idea of fuel surcharges is deceptive.

I accept the distinction between what is paid to the company providing the service and government taxes and fees, but allowing a company to arbitrarily slices what it charges into different tranches and use deceptive naming for them; well, if this is not deceptive then I don't know which would qualify for it.

pinniped

This.

It implies that someone would book an airline ticket for a plane without fuel in it. It, like many of the garbage travel industry fees that now permeate our society, should be completely illegal.

Anyway, the OP is learning something we all have known about for a long time: BA will jam you up for hundreds of dollars of these kinds of charges. Going through LHR makes it worse. Flying F makes it worse. Overnighting potentially makes it even worse.

Other options I can think of offhand: OP is flying at least somewhat off-peak; we know this because of the 20k Y award. It might be worthwhile to look for good basic fares in/out of MUC. I've done several trips to Europe, including Berlin, Austria, Slovenia, and Croatia, based on a ticket in/out of MUC. Reason? MUC is very competitive, and from there you can get to both Salzburg and Berlin easily. Rental cars out of MUC are pretty cheap too...you could easily do this one with a car, or if trains/planes suit you better you could go that route on separate (cheap) tickets.

If flying in three-cabin F is a really high priority, it might be worthwhile to gather some *A miles. You probably have time, if this is a fall trip. A few CC apps and you could be sitting on 125k-150k in UA miles. (That is, you might do 2 apps and partner does 2.) Of course, the dream would be LH F with their wonderful lounges on the ground. Those are hard to get...but UA F out of MUC is relatively EASY to get. Yes, I'm aware that UA F isn't LH F, but hey...if flying F is part of the experience, it's available. One-way home from Germany should run you about $80 per seat in taxes.

I don't fault ANY flier who finds BA's scheme deceptive, infuriating, and disgusting. Us Flyertalkers know about it and how to work around it because we're all nerds about this stuff. Anybody else in this world would look at it and think the very notion of a "fuel surcharge" is a scam. At least until someone invents fuel-optional aircraft.

JohnAx

Or not. Since the government graciously allowed AA and BA to collude rather than compete, I seldom find a case when they haven't 'harmonized' fares. Examples to the contrary (more than $5, say, since the OP was talking $1400) would be appreciated. [DISREGARD - AS NOTED SUBSEQUENTLY MY BRAIN WAS LOCKED IN REVENUE TRAVEL MODE.]

sukn

Might want to re-read the thread. We are talking about fuel surcharges for award travel on BA operated flights, not paid fares.

AA does not apply the fuel surcharges to award travel on its own metal.

3Cforme

That was eAAsy. AA-operated = $286.30 in taxes + fees. BA-operated on the same JFK-LHR-JFK route = $972.20.


AMERICAN AIRLINES
142
New York (JFK)
June 13, 2012 09:30 AM
Cabin Class : First
London (LHR)
Booking Code : F
Plane Type : 777

AMERICAN AIRLINES
105
London (LHR)
June 20, 2012 02:00 PM
Cabin Class : First
New York (JFK)
Booking Code : F
Plane Type : 777

First AAnytime Award
125,000 miles
Return
First AAnytime Award
125,000 miles
Taxes & Fees
Additional Taxes and Carrier-Imposed Fees per passenger
$286.30
Tax and Award Charge Information
Flight Subtotal
250,000 miles
+ $286.30

BRITISH AIRWAYS
BA 114
New York (JFK)
June 17, 2012 09:50 PM
Cabin Class : First
London (LHR)
Booking Code : Z

BRITISH AIRWAYS
BA 117
London (LHR)
June 20, 2012 08:30 AM
Cabin Class : First
New York (JFK)
Booking Code : Z
Departure
First MileSAAver Award
62,500 miles
Return
First MileSAAver Award
62,500 miles
Edit $0.00
Taxes & Fees
Additional Taxes and Carrier-Imposed Fees per passenger
$972.20
Tax and Award Charge Information
Flight Subtotal
125,000 miles
+ $972.20

pinniped

The other thing to add is that the fees on AA don't change between standard awards and "anytime" awards. 3Cforme just happened to select dates on which AA didn't have award inventory available and BA did.

Although in a weird sort of way, his example I guess should give BA a little credit: you can get normal 62.5k F award seats to Europe with little notice for mid-June. In this specific case, the BA award is indeed the better value than the AA award...even before factoring in the relative quality of the service, lounges, etc.

AA_EXP09

Similarly, from YVR:
FARE CAD 0.00 TAX 25.91CA TAX 15.00SQ TAX 1.80RC TAX 212.95GB TAX 56.50UB TAX 874.00YQ
Itin was YVR BA LON BA YVR

BigBopper

Since we're throwing around the worst stunned.....

I am stunned that people always are 'forced" to spend to something they don't expect and then come here to rant about it AFTER the fact.

How about come here BEFORE you are "forced" to do anything and avoid the issue all together.

Unfortunately, no one who fits the above description will read this

Always Flyin

The part where they don't fully disclose the fees you will incur BEFORE you earn the miles.

Everything (availability of seats and the exorbitant amount of fees that are incurred in award bookings) are buried until after you have committed to the program, earned the miles, and try to use them.

No reasonable person who sees they will incur fees when redeeming miles thinks the fees will be anywhere near the amount they are.

aubreyfromwheaton

I too am turned off by fuel surcharges especially since they can change at the whim of the carrier.

But the marketplace is competitive and I make my choices about what miles matter to me based on many factors.

And because different mileage programs and alliances have better availability and pricing, I am currently trying to get more UA/US miles to balance out my DL miles and AA/BA miles ...and NK miles....

777lover

And given the fact that BA and AA share revenues, this YQ shows up in AA's pockets.

MareLuce

re: Always Flyin and pinniped said it best re: "which part feels deceptive to me..."
and

Exactly.

Yep.

From the way it was presented, I thought that the $1400 in taxes and fees was completely an AA fee structure thing for that # of miles or destination combinations; that AA would charge it no matter what for that itinerary. I remembered reading a story while back about the same situation with a flyer from United. So I figured this was simply AA's way doing the same thing as United - negating or minimizing the variable cost to them of letting you use your earned mileage to book "free" flights.

In other words, I didn't realize what you all know - that different carrier choices would change the fees.

Also, that specific combination of flights was the only combination that would work, since:

- I wanted to avoid connections that would create risk of weather / snow storm delays (trip timing = mid-December). This was the choice with outbound connection = Miami, and inbound connection = Dallas, not JFK or Chicago O'Hare.

- The outbound and return flights had to each be on a certain days in December to maximize vacation time but work with other responsibilities.

- My AA mileage account has 200,000ish in it. I've been accumulating via work trips but have not actually used the mileage in a long time.

That combination of mileage costs worked (20k*2 outbound + 62k*2 return) within my 200k balance.

If I were traveling in the summer I might have tried to book via JFK. Then it would have been obvious that the fees were variable.


pinniped, that sounds like excellent advice. Thank you. Are you suggesting to search for paid fares or award tickets or both via Munich?

I don't know exactly what this implies, but none of my booking codes are Y. They are:

========= Outbound booking codes
TPA --> MIA: T
MIA --> LHR: X
LGW --> SZB (Salzburg): X

========= Return booking codes
BER --> LHR: U
LHR --> DFW: Z
DFW --> AUS: Z

Hmm... another thing that makes me worry: according to Wikipedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IATA_class_codes
booking code Z is for discounted business class, but I definitely paid 62k miles for first class on the return.

Does this mean I can expect a surprise downgrade business class on the way back, or is Wikipedia just incorrect?

This is a fair criticism. I did not remember about FT or think about coming here till the day after I booked when I was stewing...

UnitedEF

I am stunned the OP knew to come here to complain but not to read up on booking award tickets first!