Taxes are still between 10 - 20% of the total, which doesn't see unreasonable to me (although it is higher than others were reporting who purchased in HKG). You could get a printout of all the specific charges, the surcharges may have gone up or maybe AA has changed how they collect them.

Wow

Thanks for the super quick reply.

When I asked for an email with all the charges on the agent said that the email would not have the charges, just the itinerary. Iw ould only get the cost after booking - which seemed odd to me!

I will keep digging!

aks120

The first part is correct; when AA emails you an itinerary it does not have the price breakdown. The second part is not correct; the AA agent can see the detailed price breakdown, including the amount as "taxes" (which includes fuel surcharges). But some agents don't like digging in to get it and then reading it to you, so you may want to call back. To just learn the cost details, you don't technically need the RTW desk; a regular agent (e.g., EXP desk) can see the record and give you the info; if you explain that you only want information on the locator, not to make changes or ticket, a regular agent should be able to help.

Many thanks

I will try that tomorrow

aks120

Those taxes look about right compared to my DCIR22 that I have bought out of HKG....

Thanks - that makes me feel better

aks120

I'm booking an ex-HKG DCIR22 and in an effort to get an idea of the difference in fuel surcharges from booking a flight under one code or another, I've used the on-line tool to price some DONE3s that include the target flight from the DCIR22.

(For example, to compare booking the same SYD-LAX flight as either QF11 or AA7362, I set up a DONE4 that included SYD-LAX and priced it both ways.)

SYD-LAX QF vs AA: $175 less booking AA.
LAX-SYD QF vs AA: $724 less booking QF.
DFW-NRT JL vs AA: $20 less booking JL.
HKG-LAX CX vs AA: $157 less booking AA.
LHR-JNB BA vs AA: $318 less booking AA.
LAX-LHR IB vs AA: $542 less booking AA.

I was really shocked just looking at QF vs AA, it was so $724 more for AA in one direction but $175 more for AA in the other direction.

Edited: Corrected SYD-LAX is cheaper on AA than QF (but LAX-SYD is cheaper on QF)

That is interesting - I will have a look at that as I went for the most miles and did not think that the AA surcharge may be more on the Qantas flight SYD-LAX!

Thanks

aks120

Sorry, my mistake. It's $175 cheaper to book the SYD-LAX flight as AA 7363 than as QF 11, even though it's $724(!) more to book LAX-MEL-SYD using AA 7356 rather than QF 108.

I edited my post to reflect this.

Just booked a Pacific Circle via AA. SFO-HKG-PER-MEL-SYD-DFW (originally included DFW-SEA but that put me over 22K miles and would have added $2000 to the fare. Instead I booked a separate DFW-SEA in coach and upgraded with miles. The cost was about $200 plus 15K miles).

Now to the question. What is the best way to get seat assignments? I was not very impressed with the AA agent, so decided to try later. She said something about CX not assigning seats in advance.

SFO-HKG-PER is on CX with SFO-HKG on AA codeshare.

PER-MEL-SYD-DFW all on QF; SYD-DFW on AA codeshare. Is it possible to manage seat assignments online via the QF and CX websites? I assume the AA record locator will not work.

Thanks for your help.

You can use the QF and CX sites. You'll need to get the Amadeus PNR from AA.

Great. Thanks very much.

If your CX flights are more than 180 days out, then she is correct.

If they did not give you locators for your CX and QF flights, then you should call to get those locators. With those locators you can do seat assignments on the respective airline's web site.

This was the case before the system migration in February, but no longer the case now. However, CX's website still does not support seat selection for FLTs more than 180 days out, but a call to CX will do it.

Thanks for the updated info about being able to get seat assignments more than 180 days out. I guess that's what I get for not hanging around the CX forum more often.