Delta can be quite expensive
 

I just priced a ticket on Delta and American--same itinerary, same dates of travel:

AA--$829+$157 (taxes/fees)=$986

DL--$966+$662 (taxes/fees)=$1628 (U-fare)

The DL fare's more expensive, but why are the taxes/fees so much more??

Is it an international Itin using AF?

Yes, it's international, but no AF--it's DL/KLM. The AA includes BA.

Missing lots of info to comment like
From/To
Dates

Very well:

BAH-DFW-BAH

Depart: 9 Dec 11
Return: 14 Dec 11

I'm not sure how this will explain the difference in taxes/fees, though.

ITA indicates that there's YQ of $456.10 on DL for that itinerary. (I'm seeing $1631 with the last segment on GF, which incurs an additional YQ of $125.)

AA is including the YQ in the base fare, apparently, on the site you're looking at, as ITA reports the base fare as $537.47 plus a YQ of $290.

AA is rolling their fuel surcharge into the 'fare'. DL is including it in the 'taxes & fees' component.

And after stripping out the YQ, the connecting locations will cause variability in the actual taxes/fees.

OK, then why is the DL fare still higher, and again, why are the taxes/fees so much more? I'm looking at what comes out of my wallet here.

I found these fares on the DL and AA websites (you know, the ones that guarantee the lowest fares).

Maybe Just availability
DL may have alreday sold out/ allocated their lowest fares
on the flights / days you picked, and AA has NOT.

I cannot comment why DL taxes are so much higher (a topic of much discussion here), but I do know that Delta prices out high when searching many months in advance (I think they like to clear out the suckers and people who are forced to book in advance) then they drop rates 4-6 weeks before departure.

The AA fare is being priced as BAH-BWI with a stopover in DFW followed by BWI-BAH on the return, from what ITA is showing. A DL stopover in DFW obviously isn't going to be in the cards. No clue why the YQ is so different between the two, other than different airlines price things differently.

OP is looking at a DL U fare, and for many international routes at certain times of the year, you won't even see a T fare published.

I don't understand what you mean by DL taxes being higher being a topic of discussion around here. Tax breakdowns are freely available and there's no mystery. As to why YQ is higher on one carrier than another, it's really just part of their fare structure.

I'm finding this too lately... A couple of weeks ago I was looking at a trip from TPA - LHR - TPA to be there this week. The price was almost 1/2 of the exact trip that I'd looked at six months ago to travel in late July... Yesterday I also looked at a trip from TPA - PIT - TPA to go a couple of weeks from now. Several months ago TPA - PIT- TPA was selling for a total of over $265. Yesterday I found a round trip which leaves in a couple of weeks for $150 including taxes and charges...

That is very interesting. It used to be that the further in advance you plan, the cheaper the fare.

If this is intentional on the part of DL then they're going to lose pax. I like DL but not enough to pay 65% more for a ticket.