AA's 70 euro "ticketing fee"
 

After my DONE5 was priced, including all taxes, fees and surcharges, etc., I was given a 'final' price by AA.

Today, when I called AA to pay and issue the tix, they came up with an additional 70 euro "ticketing fee". At no point during the last month and a half I have been dealing with AA Madrid has there been ANY mention of this fee, until now, just before payment. :mad:

Anybody else been charged this?
Where is it published? (can't find anything in aa.com)
Should I kick/scream/complain/argue... or shutup and pay?

I must say that I don't have any experience concerning the AA ticketing fee, but many European airlines are now cashing with this. However companies like AF, BA or AY usually clearly say that they charge a ticketing fee.

Last February AY charged me a 50€ ticketing fee (on top of the USD100) for changing the route on my DBLOB34. As they had not mentionned about this and I complained, they refounded me the ticketing fee.

However I must say that 70€ for ticketing is high...

Update: AA now claims the fee is on a 'new' star file (?) they say applies to this case, whereby ANY ticket issued by American Airlines for travel originating in Spain (or is it Europe?) will be subject to a ticketing fee of 70 euros for business class (50 euros coach), for ANY itinerary that includes a transatlantic segment, over and above any other fees, taxes, surcharges and the like.

I'm still fighting the issue with them, but there you are: another 70 euros to add to the budget, this time for a hidden "ticketing fee".

Oh dear , AA really are putting you through the mill. Why not ask them to send you a copy of this mysterious star file - I've challenged them on this before and when they can't come up with the goods, they tend to back down [and when they do send through a file extract, it usually proves them wrong].

I'm assuming that your itin needs to be issued on paper because it includes carriers which aren't yet geared up for e-ticketing. In such circumstances [ie you don't have an alternative to paper] you should insist on the paper issue fee being waived.

They say it is an additonal 'service' fee, chargeable even for e-tickets. Today they told me 'all the travel agencies charge this fee so we've decided to charge it too'. :eek:

Anyhow, if I have to pay it I've decided to take 3 hour showers at each AC and drink myself to a stupor, both on the ground and in the air. Gotta get at least part of that fee back, even if it kills me. :)

But surely travel agents charge the fee to recoup any losses incurred as a result of reduced / no airline commissions and / or credit card fees???

Well, as I've whimpered before, a couple of months ago AA/LAX wanted to charge me USD75 to change an OWE segment from BA to AA. No change of itin, just carrier. BA made the change for free.

AA management obviously has an interesting approach to achieving profitability that assumes that nothing they do will have an adverse response from their customer base. Too bad. The leaders earn so much for doing such a poor job, imo.

Think I got flamed on the AA board for having the audacity to hint at such a thing.

That's the truth with American's senior leadership in the executive offices. Driving a good thing into the ground without making proper corrective action to avoid bankruptcy and/or liquidation is the norm here as of late.

Huh? It must have been a troll if you got flamed for hinting at that on the AA board. A search of that forum will net you a litany of complaints about AA decisions by AA board regulars.

But speaking of searches, I found the thread that you started on the AA forum. Surely you aren't referring to this? Am I being unreasonable? Aug 2,2004 http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=342488

Update
 

AA has agreed to waive the fee, and indicated they will now consider dropping it altogether, as a result of my letter and others like it. Well done AA.

^^ Well done, Viajero

hip-hip-hooray! My earlier jab notwithstanding, at some level AA does have good people with the insight, clout, and willingness to correct a policy gone wrong. They've dropped unpopular fees on a number of occasions.

I don't think it's a secret that AA monitors FT. Foolish airline that doesn't, between the high-value customers they can stroke when things go wrong, and nefarious schemes they can read about and abort, but I'll bet they're in a minority.