If the rules as published aren't ambiguous the software should be relatively easy to get right.

I'm not saying that will happen - it's far too difficult for entities of all types and sizes to successfully contract for (via internal IT or an external supplier) software.

I'd guess a legal filing is the only way.

Did you know that from a computational science perspective air pricing is not merely NP hard but actually it's undecidable? (i.e., an algorithm that always finds the lowest allowed price for a specified route in all circumstances does not exist.)

https://static.googleusercontent.com...arl_Sep-03.pdf

However in the context of rtw fares hopefully it shouldn't take too long to get somewhere.

On what basis? Is there a DoT right to see the fees/taxes field of a ticket?

DOT does require that taxes and carrier imposed surcharges be shown separately.

So an airline can't just say that taxes and surcharges equal $300. They have to say that taxes equal $25 and carrier imposed surcharges equal $275. Whether they need to breakdown down further on a multi-airline ticket I don't know.

The RTW tool does a pretty good job of breaking it down.

I mean, it should not be hard. The ticket will have each listed on it anyway in the fare construction field.

Exactly. So, if AA is unable/unwilling to give that information then they are either lying or not following DOT regulations.

Maybe they don't know how to convert it into a "human readable" form? [Seems a bit ridiculous but ...]

AA Unbelievable
 

So to continue the saga, I changed my routing to mimick my original routing and lo and behold it still doesn't add up, my refund is even less than the original upcharge. No airport taxes have changed since I bought the ticket and you cannot have a fare change in the middle of a trip. Btw, I am also accounting for the change fee.

It only leads me to one conclusion AA is full of Sh*t and they are not to be trusted on calculating anything. Also plausible AA is throwing carrier charges on anything they want. At least with BA you know the game.

Both customer relations and the EXP desk said you are on your own with the price desk, they cannot do or say anything to them. Well, Doug and Karen are about to get some nice words and DOT will have something to deal ponder.

More details to bore you all, but maybe the experts can discern something from this information. So by looking through the various tickets issued and exchanged for my reservation via the AA refund channel I got the info below. Now keep in mind this an ex-JNB fare bought in Johannesburg and in Rand.
Is American messing with both my locked in Rand base fare deducting for each segment and then also with the base fare and taxes via exchange rate? I can understand the taxes being recalculated but the base fare should not be touched, it was locked in already. So if they keep converting the whole remaining value of the ticket base fare + charges into a lumpsum paid towards a new fare calculation I will continue owing them no matter what unless if the currency moves in my favor??

Which office issued these tickets? Was the fare quoted in USD or ZAR?

quoted and issued in ZAR via Mindpearl in South Africa. First change done via AA RTW desk quoted USD for changes. Second change called South Africa minimal refund quoted in ZAR.

I am starting to thinking AA cannot keep the currencies straight, that I shouldn't have had AA RTW desk touch the ticket after it got issued in South Africa.

One possibility is that you were under-charged on first issuance. Not saying it's the most likely case but it would be a way for things to have gone wrong earlier which makes what you're currently experience not be wrong.

if after exchange the new ticket is sold in USD I think the whole ticket would now be liable to currency movements

The Wiki says:
Does that mean that, in this example, I would use two of my 16 segments, such that LGA-JFK essentially counts as a flight?