actual cost per segment?
 

when buying a round trip or other multi-segment/city ticket, is there a way to know how much each segment costs?

That's not really how airline faring works. If you doing one-way or roundtrip searches, there will generally only be one fare component in each direction as pricing is based on origin and destination (they do not charge per segment ). If you book something like DTW-LAX, there are a set of AA DTW-LAX fare filings that apply to that route even though AA has no non-stop DTW-LAX flights (example shown below). On domestic fares when performing multi-city searches, generally anytime you choose a layover greater than 4 hours at an airport, you will create a "stopover" and a fare break adding an additional fare component. For most international fares (except Canada), a fare break and stopover occurs when you have a layover greater than 24 hours (although international fares can have a stopover allowance, with a fee on cheaper fares, while domestic fares almost never do -- except for Hawaii fares).

AA site will list out fare basis codes involved with fare components at booking at fare rules link, but not the pricing of each fare component. If you price out on ITA Matrix, it will list both fare basis codes and pricing (before various taxes and fees) of each fare component. There is a 7.5% US Excise tax on domestic fares. There is also a TSA tax (currently $5.60 each way), a US segment tax on domestic fares (currently $4.80 per segment increasing by .10 per year), and passenger facility charge (mostly $4.50 max allowed by law per airport, but some airports charge less than max -- CLT PFC is $3.00).

Note that going from a non-stop to connecting itin adds $4.80 segment tax and $4.50 (mostly) PFC to itin even if base fare is exactly the same.



https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...5b6a213b3c.png

thanks for the response but what i'm trying to figure out is, well let's say, i buy a RT ticket and i use half of it. my plans change and i have to cancel the return flight because i've purchased another ticket. now the question is, what is the value of the remaining portion of the original ticket?

thanks again!

AA will have to tell you.

Your question would apply if AA canceled your return segment and you only took one, and don't need to rebook the other. Then they would be able to refund you for that value of the unused leg. But if you wish to voluntarily make a change, it doesn't work that way.

At time of purchase, you see how the two segments are priced for that specific ROUNDTRIP (like example shown above). Maybe that same trip would have priced out the same way if you booked 2 one ways. Other times, the roundtrip is priced priced differently than 2 individual one ways. It's pretty dependent on market (if Spriti flies the same route with lower pricing, AA may alter their fare rules to be competitive, for example).

But if you buy a roundtrip and later want to cancel the return leg (before or after your trip begins), AA would reprice you as a one way at the time of your change request. It doesn't mean you would get a credit back for the unused segment as it showed at the time you purchased it. The price could come out to be higher than the roundtrip was in the first place, in which case you would owe more $$. Maybe the re-pricing is lower than your total roundtrip. then you would get a trip credit. All dependent on what the fare is at the time you wish to make a change.

In most cases, unless something has changed recently, you can only use the return for the same routing without triggering a total re-price of the flown segments as a one way. If something has changed where you can use the residual value as a credit to a wholly new ticket, please correct me.

thanks everyone for chipping in.

i have, however, several examples of flights wherein i changed my return flight after having taken the outbound flight. when changing the "return" flight, as USFlyer said, there are constraints as to what can change. if it's the same origination and destination and the same stopovers then the new date and time can be repriced. often you can change the cities if you stay in the same countries (of departure and arrival) and i've also had luck changing the cities within the same continent.

in any case, the fact is that there is residual value and i am trying to learn what that is.


for those of you interested, my question stems from the fact that in the near future (10/18) LPs earned by flying on BA and IB will change to a spend basis. if buy a ticket today for 10/1 and return on 10/31 on BA, your LP will be calculated 2 different ways. we know well what the outbound LP will be but the return is a function of spend and that is why i'm trying to learn what the residual value is.

thanks!

With international fares, the cheapest fares generally have a roundtrip booking requirement and min stay requirements (typically, a Saturday night and/or 7 day minimum). You can generally preserve the full value of the return fare as long as you return from the same region as you will continue to meet the roundtrip booking requirements (as long as you also continue to meet min stay requirements) of the originally booked fares. But you can't preserve the full remaining credit on just any old flight because if you don't use it for a return from the same region, you will no longer meet the original roundtrip booking requirements of purchased fares (and they will reprice your originally booked flights).

If they allowed you to do that, it would basically defeat the whole point of separate pricing for one-way vs. roundtrip fares (this is known as fare price discrimination and is a very old airline pricing concept as it targets less price sensitive business flyers who tend to book shorter trips without Sat night stays vs. more price sensitive leisure flyers who tend to do the opposite).

Here is an example of roundtrip TATL O class AA fares which have a roundtrip booking requirement, 50 day advance purchase requirement, 7 day minimum stay requirement, day of week travel requirements, and are seasonally restricted to slower travel periods. These are from the fare rules link on aa.com after pricing out fare.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...7612c641fe.png
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...3941721b20.png

Residual value is probably very little, perhaps even 0. If you fly one way and not the other they will reprice what you flew as a one way and subtract that from what you paid. Whatever's left (if anything) is your residual value. This is why it's better to rebook the return than to cancel and hope for some kind of trip credit or refund.

That's unrelated to residual value. If you fly both ways they will price both directions as a half-round-trip (which is not the same as a one way). If the routings and booking codes are the same in both directions this is likely split equally. If not then you have to look at the fare construction (which is a lot easier to do before you book -- it's visible on matrix, for example). You might be able to piece it together with historical fares on EF, but that sounds like a lot of work.

Once you have booked I believe it's on the e-ticket, though seeing a copy of it might be a challenge if you booked directly with AA. I'm not sure if a sufficiently skilled agent can send it to you. I don't believe it's visible on the website anywhere. If you booked through a TA it's likely in the documents in tripcase (I've seen this when I've booked AA flights through amex travel, for example)