Do we have any generalised info on who charges QR YR/YQ? I’m increasingly preferring QR and if I could reduce fees that could make a difference. Do BA, AY, AA plates have same fees as QR plate for QR sectors?

I booked an AONE5 through JL, using their U.S. call center. Their agents are fine, but they have exceedingly long hold times when calling the U.S. call center. The way to get through quickly is to call the instant they open at 8am Pacific Time. My routing is HND-JFK-LAX-YVR-LAX-LHR-LIS-LHR-DOH-LHR-SYD-PER-ADL-SYD-SIN-KUL-NRT. The LAX-YVR-LAX flights are AS codes operated by AA (when crediting to AA, AA-coded RTW flights earn a pitifully small amount, as it's based on the pro-rated fare of the flight); the LAX-LHR is an AY code operated by BA (trying to avoid BA's notoriously high YQ/YR).

Converted to USD, my base fare is $8,026.81 and my calculations put the base fare plus YQ/YR (total price excluding actual taxes) at $9,250.00. Here's the JL calculations:


JL AONE5 fare calculation

I told JL my AA number when booking. After flying HND-JFK, I called JL and switched the FF number to my QR account, as the AA JFK-LAX in A will earn more Avios credited to QR than to BA, and wouldn't earn much in AA miles. Before flying LAX-YVR, I'll call JL and switch back to AA.

BA, AY, and AA plates all seem to charge the full amount of QR YQ/YR. JL YQ, however, is only sometimes charged by AA but not other times. Seems to be origin-dependent. Ex-Japan it is charged. Ex-Europe it is not. I can't figure out the exact pattern.

What was your ticket's original date of issue? Has it been re-issued before this re-issue? What are the marketing carrier codes for the rest of your itinerary? With this information, I may be able to compare Sabre's quote with JL's.

It was originally issued November 14 or 15, 2022, and reissued (after date changes) March 27, 2023. Interestingly, the reissue resulted in a credit of $56.53 per passenger.

My itinerary in Sabre code is, I believe:

WQTYO/JL426/CANYC/AAA/CALAX/AAS/CDYVR/AAS/CD/XLAX/AAY/CALHR/ABA/CDLIS/ABA/CD/XLHR/AQR/CADOH/AQR/CA/XLHR/AQF/CA/SYD/AQF/CDPER/AQF/CDADL/AQF/CDSYD/AQF/CASIN/AMH/CDKUL/AMH/CATYO-RW/MUSD/VJL

That's plating on JL and pricing in USD. In the e-ticket from JL, it was priced in JPY, so it might be better to use that to avoid having exchange rate changes confuse things. That would, I think, be:

WQTYO/JL426/CANYC/AAA/CALAX/AAS/CDYVR/AAS/CD/XLAX/AAY/CALHR/ABA/CDLIS/ABA/CD/XLHR/AQR/CADOH/AQR/CA/XLHR/AQF/CA/SYD/AQF/CDPER/AQF/CDADL/AQF/CDSYD/AQF/CASIN/AMH/CDKUL/AMH/CATYO-RW/MJPY/VJL

I recall that Sabre often chokes on autopricing RTWs with Australian domestic segments, so you might have to omit some of them for it to price. Perhaps:

WQTYO/JL426/CANYC/AAA/CALAX/AAS/CDYVR/AAS/CD/XLAX/AAY/CALHR/ABA/CDLIS/ABA/CD/XLHR/AQR/CADOH/AQR/CA/XLHR/AQF/CA/SYD/AQF/CASIN/AMH/CDKUL/AMH/CATYO-RW/MJPY/VJL

(As an aside, I found it helpful when creating the quote string to say to myself "slash airline" for "/a" and "slash cabin" for "/C", to make it easier to keep my place.)

What's the best way to calculate what I would earn in Loyalty Points out of AA-operated flights such as MEX-JFK, LAX-JFK or ANC-DFW?

Is it just a matter of dividing the fare amount (pre taxes) equally between the 16 (segments)?

All flights with AA flight numbers?
A question for the AA forum. A common question.

For all flights with AA flight numbers (either AA prime flights or AA codeshares operated by another airline), it's the pro-rated base fare plus the YQ/YR associated with the flight. To calculate the pro-rated fare, add up the flight distance of each flight, then for each AA-coded segment, divide the flight distance of that segment by the total flight distance, then multiply this number by the base fare. Determining which YQ/YR to allocate to which segments is harder; my spreadsheet allocates it exactly the same as it does the base fare (pro-rated by percent of total flight distance), and it works out fairly close to what AA awards, but perhaps [MENTION=77686]ernestnywang[/MENTION] can suggest a better way?

EDIT TO ADD: On occasion, AA credits RTW AA flights using flight distance, which results in far more miles and LPs than using fare, but when this happens it is a glitch and sometimes AA goes back and corrects it later. A few years ago it was possible to have an AAdvantage Customer Service agent manually adjust RTW segments to calculate using distance, but that ability has been removed from the agents' capabilities.

There's a thread for that: RTW / Round the World ticket - earning AAdvantage Miles

Hi all.
So I've priced up a DONE5 Oneworld Explorer ticket (details below), and I have a question about the taxes and charges. The total is running at about 41% of the base fare, which is a bit higher than I'd have expected. On looking at the breakdown on AA.com (also copied below - the block of text is the various taxes, which totals about $450, which is fine), I can see that $1,508.70 of the total of $1,961.19 is down as "Carrier-imposed fees". I don't have any more detail as to which carrier or which flight and the AA rep wouldn't send me any more details.
Would anyone have any idea or recommendations as to how I could potentially reduce these carrier fees (would anyone know which legs are driving the highest ones)? Sorry I'm not sure of the proper way of showing all the details on the below, so I've written it out underneath also for clarity. AA may have grouped them slightly differently as I was just booking them on dummy dates (e.g. grouped Chicago to Honolulu via Anchorage as one flight with a stopover) - not sure if that matters?
Thanks!

CAI(QR)-xDOH(QR)-xDFW(AA)-SCL, BAQ(AA)-xMIA(AA)-ORD(AS)-ANC(AS)-HNL(JL)-xHND(JL)-SYD(QF)-NAN, AKL(MH)-KUL(MH)-DEL(BA)-xLHR(BA)-AMM

Cairo to Santiago, transiting Doha and Dallas Fort Worth (Qatar flights on CAI-DOH and DOH-DFW; I asked to be put on American Airlines codeshare but they said they couldn't) (AA on DFW-SCL)
Surface segment to Barranquilla
Barranquilla to Chicago via Miami on American Airlines
Chicago to Anchorage on Alaskan
Anchorage to Honolulu on Alaskan
Honolulu to Sydney via Haneda on Japan Airlines
Sydney to Nadi on Qantas
Surface segment to Auckland
Auckland to Kuala Lumpur on Malaysian
Kuala Lumpur to Delhi on Malaysian
Delhi to Amman via Heathrow on British Airways

Adult (per passenger)
$4,700.00 USD
CARRIER-IMPOSED FEES$1,508.70 USD
PASSENGER FACILITY CHARGE (UNITED STATES)$9.00 USDSEGMENT TAX (UNITED STATES)$14.40 USDTRANSPORTATION TAX (UNITED STATES)$52.80 USDUS APHIS USER FEE (UNITED STATES)$7.66 USDUS CUSTOMS USER FEE (UNITED STATES)$13.04 USDUS FEDERAL INSPECTION FEE (UNITED STATES)$14.00 USDUS SECURITY FEE (UNITED STATES)$22.40 USDPASSENGER MOVEMENT CHARGE (AUSTRALIA)$40.50 USDPASSENGER SERVICE CHARGE (AUSTRALIA)$46.90 USDAIRPORT TAX (COLOMBIA)$49.00 USDDEPARTURE FEE (EGYPT)$1.60 USDDEVELOPMENT FEE (EGYPT)$9.70 USDEMBARKATION TAX (EGYPT)$25.00 USDSERVICE CHARGE AT CAIRO AIRPORT (EGYPT)$2.00 USDSOLIDARITY TAX (EGYPT)$13.00 USDPASSENGER SERVICE FACILITIES CHARGE (JAPAN)$10.90 USDBORDER CLEARANCE LEVY (NEW ZEALAND)$3.30 USDPASSENGER SECURITY CHARGE (NEW ZEALAND)$10.70 USDPASSENGER SERVICE CHARGE (NEW ZEALAND)$11.20 USDAIRPORT FEE (QATAR)$16.50 USDPASSENGER FACILITY CHARGE (QATAR)$16.50 USDPASSENGER SAFETY AND SECURITY FEE (QATAR)$2.70 USDPASSENGER SERVICE CHARGE (QATAR)$0.50 USDPASSENGER SERVICE CHARGE (UNITED KINGDOM)$53.20 USDOTHER TAXES & CARRIER-IMPOSED FEES$5.99 USD
Total$6,661.19 USD per person

For clarity, AA have grouped the flights as follows due to the dummy dates I provided:

Cairo to Chicago (QR and AA)
Chicago to Honolulu (AS)
Honolulu to Sydney (JL)
Sydney to Nadi (QF)
Auckland to Amman (MH and BA)

If I subsequently change dates such that transits in the original fare become stopovers (SCL, ANC, KUL, DEL), might I be subject to additional taxes?

Yes this is absolutely possible, there can be additional taxes based on stopovers vs transit (UK APD would be an example), as well as possible YQ changes I think.

Update on this - I worked with AA to get the flights amended so the stopovers and transits match what I am actually planning. The taxes and charges changed very little, so I'm still ultimately trying to figure out what airline/segment is driving such high carrier fees. Any ideas how I can figure this out so I can look into alternatives? Thanks!

Also, the AA agent said they couldn't put me on the AA codeshare of the QR operated flights from CAI-DOH-DFW because there was no business availability, but I'm seeing loads of availability in Expert Flyer, which I don't really understand.

I assumed they booked you on QR for the DOH-DFW segment as a QR flight. Not a big deal unless you need AA flight for more Avios. If you're earning AAdvantage miles then having a QR flight is a plus as you'll earn more RDM based on miles flown.

Venturing a guess, it appears they're checking CAI-DFW via DOH on AA (Instead of CAI to SCL via DFW and DOH on AA) as that shows up as D0 for AA DOH-DFW segment. Now if you do want to pursue changing to AA codeshare flight, HUACA and hopefully you'll get a better RTW agent:

Thanks for the advice. I am BAEC so would be a lot better for Avios earning to be on AA, so that's why I'm trying to push it.

I was speaking to a different agent today and they said they couldn't see any availability on the codeshare either, no matter what way they looked for it. So I'm not really sure... I'll try once again whenever I'm calling the agent to make the payment and book the ticket, but it's a bit strange that I'm seeing availability on Expert Flyer and they are not.

In relation to the high fees, the agent couldn't tell me what segment it was being driven by, so I took a gamble and asked them to change the DEL-LHR-AMM on BA to DEL-DOH-AMM on QR, just to see if that brings it down. If it brings the surcharges down more than the value of lost Avios, then I'll stick with that. If not, I'll go back to BA flight.

I don't really have many other options on the other legs if that's what is driving the high surcharges, so may just have to suck it up. The overall price is still excellent despite the high surcharges.

If I'm understanding this correctly, I need to add up the distance of each individual segment, in my case that would be around 52k miles. Then if MEX-JFK is around 2,090 miles...that would be around 4% of the total distance.

So the revenue "assigned" to MEX-JFK would be 4% of the base fare I paid?