The carrier-imposed fees (formerly called fuel surcharges), are simply overcharges that airlines add to their tickets. These are added to most international itineraries. From an airline's perspective, such "greed fees" are attractive because they don't alter the fare, meaning that their prices might look better in a price comparison listing, but crucially they are also excluded from most corporate and other discounts.

For normal itineraries, the fuel surcharges can usually be found in the fare rules. For example, the fare rules for a discount business class fare between the U.S. and Europe might include text such as "Charge $750 for each transatlantic segment." I don't know how RTW pricing systems determine the amount of these surcharges, but I do know from experience that BA flights are some of the worst, and over-the-water AA flights can be not far behind. I purchased an ex-ARN DONE5 just before the pandemic and was shocked at how low the taxes and fees were. I substituted QR and DOH for BA/AA and LHR and saved a lot.

What are your long-haul flights?

Depends what you define long-haul as, I guess, but the transoceanic are NRT-BOS on JL and BOS-MAD on IB.

Whole itinerary below. I was already trying to avoid LHR as much as possible and can skip it completely if that's what makes the difference.
BUD-DOH-CMB-BKK-HKG-NRT-BOS-ORD-YVR-ORD-BOS-MAD-TLV,AMM-LHR-BUD
(ORD both quick transit, DOH and LHR under 24h transit, TLV-AMM surface)
http://www.gcmap.com/map?P=BUD-DOH-C...X=720x360&PM=*

From potfish map http://www.gcmap.com/map?P=BUD-DOH-C...X=720x360&PM=*
Longest NRT-BOS & BOS-MAD

My understanding AA does not charge carrier surcharges on AA operated flights. But will on AA marketed BA operated.
UK has the APD for flights from most airports. But not on transits.

Oh yes, good point. Our only visit to LHR on this itinerary is for less than 24h.

It's mostly the BOS-MAD flight $850. From https://matrix.itasoftware.com
The NRT-BOS flight is around $355.
Add those together and you get more than the total, which is a bit confusing, but I think it's clear we need to decide how much we want to stop in Madrid...

I'd focus on those flights. Maybe try changing NRT-BOS to the AA code (AA 8476), and BOS-MAD to the AY code (AY 5648) and see if that makes a big difference..

I thought AA charged the surcharges for their own over-the-water flights, but I am not sure. I know they charge surcharges for over-the-water flights on their normal fares.

Indeed, I always try to connect in LHR for under 24 hours.

But Matrix doesn't price RTW fares. I understand how fuel surcharges are typically added on normal fares (they're auto-priced from the fare rules, where the surcharges are explicit). But for RTW fares, I don't know how they are determined. They're not in the fare rules.

Just called AA and they couldn't tell me either :confused:

The people that know are in Tariff, not reservations, and they won't talk to passengers.

47000/136.078 = 345 (ROE=rate of exchange, NUC=neutral unit of construction-currency). So 850 + 345 = 1195. Close to your 1151. NUC & ROE of may be different on the day your calculation was done

Agree with looking for codeshares on those flights. Airport arrivals/departures often list code-shares. As does FR24, flightaware and similar web sites. As a guess AA get more $ when more AA marketed flights.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutra...f_construction
https://www.iata.org/en/services/finance/xrates/


Good luck

I use EF for trip planning.When planning OneWorld RTWs, I use it to see all OW codeshares. I listed the available OW codeshares for those flights.

To my understanding, yes, except in the case of JBVs where some flights are in a revenue sharing agreement, such as AA and BA transatlantic.

I don't know how I can try the codeshares, unless you mean calling AA and asking them to try them? The agent said when I was booking that they only book the "prime" flight numbers (their word).

I've had problems before getting the AA RTW desk to book codeshares (except of course for AA codes). Still, it'd be worth trying again, with a different agent. Especially because in your case, one of the codeshares is an AA code. Call and ask the agent to change NRT-BOS to flight AA 8476, and BOS-MAD to flight AY 5648. Don't mention codeshares or prime.

(Prime is the term for a flight that's operated and marketed by the same airline, that is, not a codeshare.)

Certainly worth a try, but on the DONE4 I've just booked, AA's agent happily accepted a QF flight but by the time it had been into ticketing and come back again, it had been magically changed to an AA codeshare on the same flight, without asking me. So if the agent agrees, check on the website a day later and be sure it has stuck.

Other than that wrinkle, by the way, I found the AA RTW desk to be super professional, helpful, with a decent sense of humour too, and willing to work through all the details until the journey is right. Far from the usual call centre experience one gets with airlines these days (if indeed your favourite airline still answers the phone *at all*).