Fee difference online v direct booking
 

This is just an FYI if anybody else is curious about this: I've been working on booking DONE3 origen WAW, first carrier BA. Sadly, it looks like I'm too late to get it booked during sale, but I thought the price difference might be of interest. Going through the online itinerary builder, the price is USD6681.65 with BA the ticketing carrier. Buying from AA in Warsaw, it's USD 5899.09. So about 25% difference in fees and taxes. Pretty good chunk o change. I imagine the relative difference will hold regardless of what the current price is.

This generally relates to fuel surcharges.

Ticketing with the tools goes to the carrier of the first segments. If this is BA, fine surcharges are applied to most segments, irrespective of the operating/marketing carrier.

If the first segment is with AA, fuel surcharges are generally only applied to AA marketed segments (this is generally only significant on transatlantic flights).

In addition to paying less for the ticket, you also have the benefit of being able to make changes using the AA RTW desk (1-800-247-3247). Not everyone there is perfect, but they clearly have the most knowledge and best customer service of any of the Oneworld airlines. Date/time of day/carrier changes are free of charge, and ime, are generally done very cordially and efficiently. [As always, you might accidentally locate an inexperienced agent...in which case you should just call back until you find an agent who is cordial and efficient.]

You still have till Monday. I will ticket my next DONE4 on the 2nd as well.

Huge benefit, so hope I can make this work.

Good, I'm somewhat optimistic.

Can anyone tell me how to fax or e-mail TAL? Their site gives a fax# that doesn't work (it's not in the format the number on the AA website is--way too many numbers). And there is no e-mail information. If all else fails I'll set my alarm for 0800 in WAW and call them. Hope there's someone who speaks English! Thanks

You have a PM.

The trouble is that the online tool is defaulting to having the first carrier do the ticketing, regardless of whether the first flight is a codeshare or not. IIRC your itinerary is WAW-LHR-LAX, thus putting you at the mercy of BA.

But it dawned on me that you could skip LHR, hence BA, by going WAW-HEL-JFK... which would have AY as the ticketing airline. Or, IIRC IB is now serving WAW, so you could get back to something close to your "original" routing (WAW-LHR-LAX-SJU...) by going WAW-MAD-SJU-LAX... That way IB would be the issuing carrier (hmm) but again, probably wouldn't end up with the big fuel fines.

Also, right now ARN is not a lot more expensive than WAW in USD terms, and has equal or better connections to intercontinental gateways. You might run a dummy test of a DONE3 with ARN-HEL-xxx instead of WAW-LHR-xxx to see if having the ticket issued by AY makes a big difference in cost compared to the BA gouging you mentioned on the web.

One final option to look at in terms of on-line ticketing would be originating in Amman. Jordan is pretty close to the same price as Poland/Sweden, and you could really get a jump on the mileage game by going on the RJ AMM-ORD nonstop as your first flight (using the AA code if you like.) I seem to recall that AA does the ticketing when RJ is the first carrier.

Anyway, if you want to spend a Sunday fooling around with the online tool, I'm betting you can hit a solution that offers some savings, in both dollar and segment terms.