AA RTW rate desk problems?
 

If you check that the taxes and fees added to your RTW tickets are what you expect, have you noticed any discrepancies recently?

I'm flying an ex-JNB AONE4 that I've rerouted 3 times using the AA RTW desk. Each time, the rate desk seemed challenged, even though the changes seemed simple, e.g. adding LAX-ORD-LAX to the ticket. (The ticket had been issued with just the 4 segments I needed to make it around the world, so at that time it contained no NA segments.)

I'm not sure what the problems were - the RTW agent would say "the rate desk is having trouble, I'll call you back" and eventually I'd get the price. It would typically be less than I'd expected (from pricing the same RT on ITA) as if there was a tax component they weren't including, but as domestic taxes aren't that much (and AA doesn't add YR on domestic segments) it was no big deal.

Most recently I added Asian segments - HKG-DEL-HKG, HKG-MLE-HKG. ITA said YR was ~ USD230 for each of the two round trips and taxes were about $50 each. When the RTW desk called to tell me the price, the agent volunteered that it seemed too high and was sending it back to the rate desk. In fact the YR component was about $200 higher than I expected. Taxes were a bit ($10) on the low side.

As a check on ITA, I priced the trips on the Cathay web site; their price for carrier fees and taxes both agreed with ITA within exchange rate differences. Both Cathay and ITA included $15.50 HKG departure taxes that AA hadn't included.

A week later the rate desk stands by their price. Tax details are reasonable consistent (except for that departure tax) and they give no further explanation for charging $650 for total YR (vs. expected $460). Given that 3 tix are involved, I'd rather keep the $570 in my account rather than donate it to the airline, but that wasn't a choice.

For the domestic NA segments, I believe one who buys international TKTs (or TKTs originating from other countries) do not have to pay certain taxes for those domestic segments that would otherwise be charged on a domestic (or ex-US) ticket. For CX segments, note that your transpacific segment (if not on CX) may influence how YR is collected. Note that when the AA and CX segments are bundled together, 309.9USD is charged, instead of 112.2+109.9=222.1USD. Please also note that they might charge you the YR rate on the date of original issue, not the rate on the date of reissue.

Very nice information, thanks very much.

AA likes to change pax to their own code-shares and that did happen here; during a no-charge date change TPAC went from CX to AA. It would be kind of naughty if they made an un-requested change that increased the pax' cost, and I wonder why they're happy to give me the breakdown of all the taxes but won't break down the YR total into its pieces.

Out of JNB I booked AA codeshares through LHR to LAX because AA's YR was significantly cheaper than BA's YQ. The originating ticket was just JNBxLHR-LAX-HKG-JNB and fees and taxes were within a few dollars of ITA's multi-city calculation. I changed TPAC to JFK-HKG but will have to remind myself how they priced that - I had no problems with their number, so at that point pricing was correct.

One earlier change - just adding a couple of domestic segments, iirc - did get a price from the rate desk that was about $750 too high (all I should have been charged were some U.S. domestic taxes, which are relatively tiny) and the RTW agent thought nothing of it until I pointed it out; that one the rate desk corrected quickly.

OT, when we checked in with BA at JNB, we learned that our flight (the earlier of the two daily services) had been canceled. The agent said we needed to talk to AA about getting re-booked. That earned my very-annoyed response and it didn't take long to get seats on the later flight, but I wonder if they were in the right to try to send me away.

Take it or leave it
 

FWIW the outcome of my recent AONEx ticket change was that AA RTW desk refused to break down or explain the YR charge. Take it or leave it, that's our price.

AA should have alerted you of the flight cancellation, and offered to rebook you on the later flight.

I think BA was correct in referring you back to AA for rebook (I assume AA was the ticket issuer). Fortunately you did not have to wait too long for your later flight, less than 2 hours, between AA6446 (BA56) and AA6444 (BA54). So you didn’t get to fly A388, but got stuck with the old 744? Oh boy!

Did you make your connection at LHR?

Thanks!

I often find that AA code-shares are expensive so I have little experience with them, and am surprised that the agreement between the marketing and the operating carriers doesn't include irrops protection. As you describe it, I should have learned that AA had already rebooked me on the later flight, subject to subsequent modification if that didn't suit my needs. Annoying and scary that no one at DFW did anything.

I'm pretty sure BA hadn't started their 380 service from JNB at the time, but I rather like the 744 (except perhaps the noisy nose-gear extension). Airlines like the newer designs because they're cheaper to operate, but pax put themselves at schedule risk because of early reliability issues, and safety risk because of design oversights (e.g. B787 batteries, A380/RR engines) so I let others participate in the beta testing.

No cnx problems; I try to be very generous with timing coming off a long-haul. Although I've since booked JFK-LHR-DUB with just 60 minutes. That's not likely to happen even though it met MCT, but the consequences are nothing. Interestingly, I needed to book pax on two pnr's and the ba computer wouldn't allow less than 120 minutes for the second one.

I believe that in this situation, AA is acting as the agent, and it is their responsibility to notify and reissue changes. Not a codeshare/operating carrier issue.

Doesn't sound right. You're saying that the ticketing carrier assumes total responsibility for issues that come up during travel.

Again, not the carrier, but the travel agent. In this case, AA is acting as your travel agent. And not "during travel". I understood you were saying your first flight was cancelled. Changes to an itinerary before travel has started are the responsibility of the travel agent.