nabeelj

Just did a quick test trying to redeem for AA ORD-LHR on 15/Dec. AAdvantage is 20K + US$2.50. BAEC is 25K + C$116.49. So, BAEC is charging ~C$110 extra, but I have no idea where that amount comes from. Even a revenue ticket for that same flight has only US$23.10 in taxes (per ITA).

Another test, this time AA JFK-NRT on 11/Jan. AAdvantage is 25K + US$2.50. BAEC is 25K + C$2.57. So, that works as expected.

Any idea what the extra "taxes" are in the first example?

hillrider

Apparently, as I've recently found out, BA does not allow you to redeem miles for free flights on their metal. They always charge you a copay, variously mislabeled as a "fuel surcharge" or other such euphemism. Their systems further mislabels things by labeling this copay, which BA gets to keep, as "tax".

They've probably already extended this practice to all flights covered by the transatlantic joint business.

David-A

Not if you look at the BA fare. If you look at BA fares for the route, you will see regardless of whether you look at ITA or BA.com, you will see the surcharges come to 134.10 USD.

BA YQ surcharge $111.00
Tax: US International Departure Tax $16.10
Tax: US September 11th Security Fee $2.50
Tax: US Passenger Facility Charge $4.50

They arn't taxes at all, but a fuel surcharge.

Which takes us on to:

Actually it is labeled as: "Taxes, fees, charges and surcharges per person"

Seems fair to me. This is the BA scheme, BA rules apply.

nabeelj

But I am redeeming on AA metal! Why does this not apply to the AA metal JFK-NRT example?

jeelele

Just had the same thing happen to me 5 minutes ago when I was helping my Aunt and Uncle book EZE-JFK-ORD (all AA metal) flights in C over the phone.

The itinerary that we wanted couldn't be booked on the web as BA.com couldn't pull up JFK-ORD segment although it was available. But when we check EZE-JFK AA metal on BA.com, taxes came to only $59.00. But over the phone, the agent quoted us $236.50 ($59 + $2.50 + $175 YQ). We politely objected the quoted YQ by explaining our rational of BA.com not showing YQ. The agent then put us on hold and after more than 40 minutes came back and explained that she spoke with her supervisor who explained that charging YQ on AA metal for award tickets was part of the AA-BA-IB deal and its just that BA.com system has not been updated to reflect the same. But it should happen very soon.

We then also added ORD-YYC as an add-on and were YQ'ed ($74) that segment also.

Regardless, we went ahead and paid YQ to book the tickets as we were getting ideal flights.

But what a bummer!

HankAAFlyer

That's a bummer. I hope BA doesn't decide to start charging the fuel surcharge for domestic US tickets on AA - I was hoping to redeem my BA miles on AA metal to get around the fuel surcharge but if they decide to extend this to all their partners, there will be a lot of unhappy folks!

xlax

Anyone have a definitive answer on this?

xlax

rbc100

I booked a ticket LAX to BKK on Cathay yesterday and taxes and fees were $227. I did book it in business so not too bad a deal a gets rid of most of my remaining BA miles from theier big credit card promo.rbc100

potfish

If this happens then I'll be one of the unhappy folks too. I'm moving to the US next year and have a big stock of BA miles that I was planning to use on AA.

Happy

So the BAEC members also lost a valuable option from this ATI finalization.

This means BA miles have a stealthy devaluation worse than that on AA miles - because while AA member can avoid BA flight if possible thus avoid the YQ, BAEC members lost their other options - now all awards are subject to YQ.

GUWonder

Devaluing the BA miles like this topic suggests means that my use of the BA credit card should plummet, with the charges instead directed to other "loyalty" program operators' credit cards.

Increasingly this AA/BA arrangement is looking like the DL/AF one that enriched the airlines by burning customers of both programs (and this would be no exception). Welcome to the "fruits" of government-enabled collusion by the industry's large players.

Prospero

By my reckoning, BAEC members have gained. No changes to BA's YQ scope on those routes redeemable prior to October 2010 and the introduction of TATL earning/burning on AA.

GUWonder

Are you sure that the scope of routes subject to this BA award ticket fee haven't increased to also include AA flights which were redeemable with BA miles prior to October 2010?

Prospero

One can never be 100% certain until one has checked all the routes. Will offer one example though: JFK-SFO one way economy redemption and quoted 12,500 BA Miles plus £1.60 in taxes/charges/fees. No change there.

Feel free to share your own findings

GUWonder

BA-issued award tickets for AA-operated domestic US flights seems to be the same as it was at the start of the year. That's great as one-way, multi-stop itineraries for 12,500 miles + cash component of actual third party charges (read: non-BA-created, non-AA-created charges applicable to award tickets) is one of the dwindling ways in which the redemption value per BA mile can exceed the value of an AA mile.

I'll have to start looking at the impact of my trips to/from South America, to see how much -- if at all - this impacts me.